"If you think of a way, to put it lightly, it's not a matter of tens of thousands of taels of silver, it's hundreds of thousands of taels or even millions of taels, and now the annual treasury income is only 2.4 million taels, even if I want to squeeze it, I can't squeeze out too much." Zhang Juzheng had a big headache.

The Sixth Guard spent money on training, and he couldn't stop it, he felt distressed, Qi Jiguang trained 3,000 people, but the money spent per capita was several times less.

"I have my own way, I won't bother the emperor about the silver, and I don't have to worry about the adults, but there is one point, the equipment of the army has to be allocated by the imperial court. Horses, artillery, guns, swords, swords, bows, arrows, and crossbows, I have nowhere to buy them. ”

Zhang Juzheng and Qi Jiguang were stunned, they didn't know where he got the confidence, how to raise hundreds of thousands of taels of silver? Unless he sells the Wucheng Marquis Mansion.

"No matter how hot the business on your street is, it's about the same if you make 100,000 taels a year, what about the rest?" Qi Jiguang thought that he was fighting on the street.

"I can't say that, but I can get this money anyway." And laughed self-righteously.

Of course, he can't say that he has more than one million taels of silver, otherwise, these two people must ask the source, and he can't say it.

"Okay, you have a lot of ghost ideas, and there may be a way, I don't ask, there is no problem with ordnance and materials, everything is supplied by the imperial court, and what the imperial court lacks is silver, not equipment." Zhang Juzheng assured.

Besides, Daxi, in fact, these military equipment are the most expensive, let him buy it himself, not to mention that there is no place to buy it, and he really can't afford it, at least for the time being.

Those military equipment were slowly built by the imperial court for many years of financial resources, and they were all stored in the warehouse, and it was by no means possible to make so much every year.

In addition, the financial resources of the Ming Dynasty were actually not weak, and the economic difficulties were not due to lack of material, but to lack of silver to serve as blood. The basic principle of economics is that economic vitality depends on the abundant liquidity of money, and although people at that time did not understand economics, they also understood the most simple truth.

This is like a collective collapse of national stocks, the global economy will instantly fall into a dark hell, in fact, just the stock is gone, there is no loss at all, but the economy has fallen into a dead place, the truth can only be understood by understanding economics, in fact, there are really not many people who really understand.

Regardless of these, the predicament encountered during the Jiajing and Longqing periods of the Ming Dynasty was like this, there was no sufficient currency to support the operation of the economy, at that time, silver and copper coins were used as currency, silver was scarce, and copper coins were not abundant, and in the case of monetary tightening, the economy naturally lacked due vitality, just like a patient suffering from paralysis.

Zhang Juzheng still couldn't figure out where the silver came from, even if that street could bring 100,000 taels of silver a year, the Wucheng Hou Mansion would be able to give him about 40,000 taels of silver at most every year, which was still too bad.

Zhang Juzheng didn't understand Qi Jiguang, of course, he didn't understand, and he didn't think about it, Qi Jiguang had been fighting for many years, and the military attache was rich, but he only saved 40,000 or 50,000 taels of silver, besides, where to get hundreds of thousands of taels?

Besides, he thinks differently from them, he has the silver on him, and he doesn't need to get it anywhere, he thinks of something else.

Originally, he wanted to buy horses, artillery, and guns by himself, and the horses were okay, but there was no place to buy them with artillery and guns, and now he could continue to recruit 20,000 or 30,000 people for training in the name of expanding the army, and he could reach out to the imperial court to ask for more weapons and equipment.

The first time he trained the troops, he actually spent a lot of extra money, and the next training system has been perfected, and he can save a lot of money, and he estimates that more than 300,000 taels of silver a year will be enough.

He didn't know how much profit that street was, but the annual pharmaceutical business could definitely earn 100,000 taels, how long was it, Zuo Ling had already earned 30,000 taels from selling medicines, and if he wanted to rush to Fujian in the future, he would have to hoard a large number of medicines, and the profit of 100,000 taels of silver a year could be guaranteed.

This is only in Beijing, and when he arrives in the coastal areas, he can buy all kinds of rare treasures along the coast and overseas, and sell all kinds of local products to the mainland, and I believe that the profits will not be less.

Of course, he will not spend all of these on military spending, the bulk of military spending still has to make a fuss about the eight major families of the Pirate Alliance, and the imperial court will not give funds, so he can only scrape the land and rob the wealthy family, I believe that the emperor will not be able to say anything at that time.

Not only that, but he can also pretend to be public and private, and do a lot of business by himself, others want to buy trade routes in his hands, why not do it if he has this convenience, at that time, he can sell tea, salt, porcelain, and silk overseas by himself, and earn back a huge amount of silver. He is not a loyal courtier of the emperor, and he will not be so dedicated to public service. If he can really do this, even if he has 100,000 elite soldiers, there will be no shortage of funds.

"My lord, I still lack a sailor there, although the imperial court wants to give me a few ships, it is estimated that it will not be enough, and when the treaty port is opened, it is not enough to ensure the safety of the port, and the pirates outside will also have to fight, otherwise don't expect goods to go ashore." Besides.

"Hehe, if you want to finish the armament and the ship, what else do you want?" Zhang Ju laughed angrily.

"It's not that I want it, it's the country's needs, but I work for the country, according to my original intention, I still go back to Jiangnan as a scholar." Besides, he laughed.

"I know you'll say that, but if you really go to Fujian, guard the place with the sixth guard of brocade clothes, and have full power to mobilize the sailors of the coastal provinces, this is not enough?" Zhang Juzheng said.

"My lord, you also know that those sailors are just wandering around the coastal waters, and they can't go to the ocean at all, but pirates can hide in the distance and attack merchant ships, and without a sailor who can fight pirates at sea, it is meaningless to open a treaty port." Besides, the color is right.

"That's a problem." Zhang Juzheng was also convinced.

"Brother, do you still want to go to sea to fight pirates? It is not easy to fight against the pirates and pirates on land, but on the vast sea, not to mention the pirates and pirates, even the waves and typhoons can wipe out a naval division. Qi Jiguang was shocked, this is too daring to think.

"I also know it's difficult, but how did Zheng He do it back then, the Three Treasures Eunuch is the whole West." Besides.

"Do you want to replicate Zheng He's fleet back then? It is simply impossible, it will cost millions of taels of silver to build a ship, and millions of taels of silver will be needed every year for maintenance. Zhang Juzheng shook his head directly.

"No, let's build a small fleet first, at least we can fight against ordinary pirates, and we can hold a sea trade route. Otherwise, I would have to trade with the pirates and pay tribute and pay taxes to them, and at that time, the court would not say that I communicated with the pirates. "Besides, the hole cards are revealed.

Zhang Juzheng really didn't think about these things, when he thought of opening the sea ban and setting up a treaty port, he just thought about how to defend it, this is already a difficult thing to get to the sky, where can he still take care of the sea?

Besides, it's useless to think about it, the imperial court really doesn't have the strength to fight at sea, and if it does, it won't let the pirates and pirates run rampant on the sea for many years, and the coastal sailors can only prevent them from going ashore, and even this goal is difficult to achieve.

"Write out all your thoughts, report one to the emperor yourself, and one to me. If you build a fleet to fight at sea, how much silver will be needed at least, make a plan first. Zhang Juzheng said.

Besides, he has always dreamed of copying Zheng He's fleet and recreating Zheng He's feat of going to the West, but he also knows that he can only dream of it, and it is impossible to succeed without five million taels of silver.

However, he can start small, first build a few armed ships, equipped with strong bows and crossbows, firearms and artillery, and of course, the red-coated cannons, which are big killers, must be on board.

He also inquired that the average pirate is only one or two ships, at most ten, after all, they are only robbing merchant ships, and they are not like when they go ashore, where tens of thousands of people gather together.

The pirates did not have heavy weapons on their ships, usually bows and arrows, and their tactics were to force the merchant ships to stop with their boats, and then approach and hook the merchant ships with iron hooks, and the pirates would use the gangplanks to board the merchant ships and start looting.

If you get about five armed ships, you will be able to meet the most basic combat needs, and in the future, you will apply to the imperial court to supplement one or two more every year, and then spend money to build a few more, grow in the battle, and slowly grow stronger.

The most important thing here is still the ship's firearms, strong bows and crossbows, which have to be provided by the imperial court, and he can't buy them with money.

"Seeing you smiling so proudly, why do I seem to have gotten on your thief ship?" Zhang Juzheng looked at him with a smile.

"No, my lord, I try my best to do my errand, and then the emperor won't want my head, isn't it all for the sake of saving my life." Besides, he hurriedly looked straight and began to complain again.

"Okay, I don't care what the hell you think, but what you think is really for the emperor and the court, and I will fully support you." Zhang Juzheng said with a wry smile.

"In addition, there is one more troublesome thing for adults, I want to look for it, and see if I can find the hydrological data and ship style drawings of the Three Treasures Eunuch who went to the West in what warehouse." Besides.

"Well, no problem, I'll have people do my best to find it, but I heard that it was all destroyed back then." Zhang Juzheng agreed.

"Brother Yunming is ambitious and bold, do you really want to go through the entire West? Admire, admire. Qi Jiguang said.

Besides, he smiled bitterly: "Where do I have that ambition, it is this errand that makes me restless, and every day I dream about how to do the errand that the emperor gave me." ”

"Where there's a will, there's a way, and maybe you can accomplish it in the future." Zhang Juzheng's expression perked up.

He didn't think that he could do it, but the prospect he envisioned made him instantly open-minded, as if he saw the future Ming dragon flag flying high in the sky of the Western Sea, the Japanese and pirates were nowhere to be seen, and all the islands were bathed in the vast imperial grace.

"That's it, Nankou and Beikou, Nankou will be handed over to Brother Yunming in the future." Qi Jiguang said jokingly.