The conquest of the north is completely different from the infantry combat method in the south of the Yangtze River. In the northern plains, whoever has more cavalry and better equipped cavalry will be able to gallop across the country.

But in the previous two years, Fang Yuan's conquest focused on crusading against Fujian and building an invincible armada. Therefore, the military expenditure of the Xuanjia Army is actually seriously tilted in the direction of the naval division battalion, and the scale of the cavalry battalion has not been expanded, remaining at the order of 15,000 horsemen and 25,000 war horses.

This order of magnitude of cavalry is more than enough to protect Jiangnan, but if you want to compete for power in the northern battlefield, it is far from enough.

Zhao Quanzhong asked bluntly, "How much is Governor Fang going to expand the cavalry battalion?" ”

Fang Yuan groaned and said, "Li Zicheng has 50,000 cavalry and 130,000 war horses; The Manchu Qing Dynasty had more than 50,000 fine horsemen and countless war horses. The cavalry battalion of the Xuanjia Army now has only 15,000 cavalry and 20,000 or 30,000 war horses, which is still far behind. I want Chigutai and you to train cavalry in Yangzhou Mansion, and within a year, expand the cavalry battalion to 30,000 cavalry and 60,000 war horses; Within two years, it expanded to 50,000 horsemen and 150,000 horses. ”

In the past, there was also a horse farm in the Taihu Lake base, but Yangzhou Mansion was mainly a plain, and the terrain and weather were closer to the north, so it was obviously a more suitable place to train cavalry.

But to train a huge cavalry corps, the buying and selling of war horses and raising them are the top priorities, Jing Jie asked, "Boss, now that the imperial court has cut off the war horse trade with Jiangnan, where can I buy and sell war horses?" ”

Fang Yuan said with a smile, "The horse-producing land of the Ming Dynasty is nothing more than the north and south lines of the Great Wall. Gyeonggi doesn't sell it, and King Qin and King Su's gang of poor people who broke a tael of silver in half and spent it won't sell it? As long as Li Zicheng's passage is opened, the war horses can be transported to Yangzhou Mansion in a steady stream. ”

Jing Jie said, "What about military spending? Last year, only 200,000 taels were spent on the purchase of horses, stirrups, and armor for the cavalry battalion. The number of war horses alone was expanded to 150,000, and each war horse cost 20 taels of silver, which required 3 million taels. ”

Zhao Quanzhong also crossed his fingers and said, "In addition to the breeding of 150,000 war horses, it also needs 300,000 taels of silver and 300,000 stone grain every year, and the military expenses of the cavalry battalion are far from enough!" ”

When it comes to the review of military spending, empty words are not enough, everything must be spoken by data. Fang Yuan immediately found Xiao Yuan, who was in charge of the independent accounting team, and the two daughters of the regiment commander, Qiu Lin, and asked them to report last year's military expenditure.

The Xuanjia Army has a total establishment of 120,000 troops, of which 85,000 are military households, and 35,000 are military salaries, each person is 60 taels of silver per year, and the military expenditure is 2 million taels.

Other additional expenditures on armaments:

The military expenditure of the naval division battalion is two million taels, which is mainly used to build artillery carriers and frigates of artillery carriers.

The military expenditure of the cavalry battalion was 200,000 taels;

The military expenses of the infantry battalion were 300,000 taels;

The military expenditure of the artillery battalion was 700,000 taels;

The total number of other logistics battalions and drone teams is 100,000 taels.

According to comprehensive statistics, the total military expenditure for the Xuanjia Army last year was 5.3 million taels.

In terms of income, because there was no need to pay tribute to the imperial court and commercial taxes, one million stone of grain and two million taels of silver were saved every year.

In addition, the Zheng Group was annihilated, and the sea trade route was opened, and the protection fee originally handed over to the Zheng Group is now all included in the collection of the regular city shipping tax. In the first year alone, Zhejiang and Fujian collected 4 million taels of municipal tax.

If the smuggling officials and merchants in Guangdong are destroyed again, it is estimated that the city tax will be raised to at least six or seven million taels of silver.

The revenue from commercial tax and city tax increased significantly, and Fang Yuan was very rich in hand, and he could concentrate on building a powerful cavalry corps that was comparable to Li Zicheng and the Manchu Iron Cavalry.

Fang Yuan looked at the accounts sent by Xiao Yuan, pondered for a while, and said lightly, "The Zheng clan's fleet has been completely annihilated, and this time I go to Guangdong, I will completely wipe out the remnants of the Zheng clan." Since the maritime frontier is calm, there is no need to maintain high military spending. Before the unification of the world, the focus of military affairs shifted from building warships to training cavalry. ”

The naval fleet must be built, and the maritime frontier must also be developed, but there are priorities. Since the Zheng clan is about to die, the warships do not need to be built like dumplings for the time being, and the speed of building ships can be appropriately slowed down, and the military funds can be invested in more important army construction.

This idea had already taken shape in Fang Yuan's mind, and now that Zhao Quanzhong had come to the door, he took the opportunity to announce the shift of strategic focus, "In two months, the second artillery carrier formation can be launched." After the second artillery carrier formation was put into service, the annual cost of building ships was reduced to 1 million taels. Military spending is tilted toward cavalry battalions and infantry battalions, and the annual expenses allocated to cavalry battalions have increased to 3 million taels, the expenses allocated to infantry battalions have increased to 1.5 million taels, and the military expenses allocated to artillery battalions have been reduced to 500,000 taels. ”

Fang Yuan increased or decreased the military expenditure of each battalion, mainly reducing the military expenditure of the naval division battalion and the artillery battalion, and increasing the military expenditure of the cavalry battalion and the infantry battalion, and the total military expenditure increased by 2 million taels.

This increase and inclination of military spending also announced that the focus of the Xuanjia Army began to change from fighting pirates, maritime groups, and opening up overseas trade routes to a war to unify the world inward.

Jing Jie asked, "Boss, you suddenly cut the military expenses of the Navy Battalion and the Artillery Battalion, Shi Lang and Li Zongze are afraid that there will be complaints!" ”

Fang Yuan smiled and said, "Then you and I can only go and appease them personally." Third child, you and Li Zongze have a lifelong friendship, and it will be up to you to appease Li Zongze. What about me! I went to Guangdong and Taiwan to make a heart-to-heart relationship with Shi Lang. ”

Jing Jie was also quite puzzled when he saw that he insisted on conquering Guangdong and Taiwan thousands of miles away, "Boss, this kind of remote place thousands of miles away, why bother you to conquer it yourself?" Appoint the commander of the Navy Division Shi Lang, and Feng Ting, the chief soldier of Fujian, can also take Guangdong and Taiwan! ”

With Shi Lang and Feng Ting out of the army, there is no need for most of the Xuanjia Army to go south, and it should be easy to take Guangdong. But in the face of Zheng Sen, who fled to Kinmen, Fang Yuan still couldn't take it lightly. Zheng Sen, recorded in the history books, will inevitably occupy Taiwan, and then continue to harass Guangzhou and the coastal areas of Fujian like kraft candy.

If Zheng Sen has a firm foothold in Taiwan, it will be even more difficult to calm down the poor mountains and bad waters, where a group of uncivilized aborigines live in Taiwan, which is still in a primitive society, and it is necessary to take advantage of Zheng Sen's unstable foothold in Kinmen to solve this problem of confidants.

Fang Yuan said slowly, "The group of smuggling officials and businessmen in Guangdong are just scabies, and a brigade of soldiers can capture them alive. However, Zheng Sen, who fled overseas to Kinmen, is a henchman. If it is not eradicated as soon as possible, when our army goes north and west, he will definitely take advantage of the situation to counterattack. Zheng Sen will not die for a day, and the southeast coast will be restless for a day! ”

Jing Jie proposed, "Zheng Sen has fled to Kinmen like a lost dog, and he can send someone to surrender, does Zheng Sen still want to rely on a corner of Kinmen to continue to resist?" ”

Fang Yuan stared at Jing Jie and said in a deep voice, "Third child, there is a kind of person in this world who was born to be the boss and will never be subservient to others. For example, Liu Bei, if he surrendered to Cao Cao, he would have enjoyed endless glory and wealth. But he would rather be like a lost dog, running around, and competing with Cao Cao. Zheng Sen, who is the same as Liu Bei, even if he surrenders, he is forced by the situation, he is definitely not sincere, and he may rebel at any time. ”

"For people like Liu Bei and Zheng Sen, the only way is to give him a complete break. I fought and killed Zheng Sen for three years, winning and losing each other, and I almost lost my life in Xianxia Pass. This man is the toughest opponent I've ever faced. He is also a hero in troubled times, I don't want to fake others, and go to his funeral in person, which can be regarded as a hero's sympathy! ”