Ruan Dacheng's strategic policy of promoting strengths and avoiding weaknesses has been fully affirmed by Zhu Youhua. Zhu Youhua, the pen and the fun and pavilion www.biquge.info thought twice, approved Ruan Dacheng's recital, and decided to form a Yangtze River naval division to defend Nanjing. It's just that the person responsible for recruiting and training water masters needs to be decided carefully.

There are not many generals in the entire Nanming who are good at water warfare.

Zheng Chenggong is one, Shi Lang is one, and Zhang Mingzhen is barely one.

At present, Zheng Chenggong is still a student, is studying in Nanjing Guozijian, is the current protégé of Qian Qianyi, the current waiter of the Ministry of Rites, and is very close to the Donglin Party, Qian Qianyi is the former leader of the Donglin Party, and was a hardcore "anti-Fu faction" before Zhu Youhua ascended the throne, although it has been relatively low-key recently, and with the continuous suppression and differentiation of the Donglin Party, the political attitude is gradually changing, but before it is successfully brought over, Zheng Chenggong cannot be used for the time being.

Shi Lang is currently the left vanguard of Zheng Zhilong's standard battalion, and he is cunning, accustomed to seeing the wind and steering the rudder, and at the moment of crisis, he may not be able to turn against each other.

Thinking about it, only Zhang Mingzhen may be useful.

Zhang Mingzhen, the word waiting, was a native of Jiangning County, Tianfu in the south of the Ming Dynasty.

When he was young, he was upright and bold, quite strategic, and ambitious. Traveling to Beijing, Cao Huachun, the eunuch of Dongchang, was introduced as a guest. At the end of Chongzhen, he served as a guerrilla in Shipu, Taizhou. After King Lu supervised Shaoxing, he was named General Fuping. In the third year of Shunzhi of the Qing Dynasty (1646), King Lu was defeated and retreated into the sea, and Zhang Mingzhen obeyed.

Soon, King Lu went to Xiamen, and Zhang Mingzhen stayed in Zhoushan to wait.

In the fifth year of Shunzhi, the king of Lu returned to eastern Zhejiang. In the following year, he united with Ruan Jin to defeat Huang Binqing, the general soldier of Zhoushan in the year of Fenglongwu, Huang was sunk by Ruan Jin and annihilated, and King Zhang Yinglu was officially stationed in Zhoushan. After that, he and Zhang Huangyan and others led the troops into the Yangtze River three times, hoping to recover the lost territory of the Ming Dynasty, but because the troops were weak, they returned in vain. After conquering Zhoushan for the third time in the 11th year of Shunzhi, he finally died in the Zhoushan army on November 28 because of the hatred of the country and the family.

Judging from his resume, he is a loyal and principled sailor general, and his character is still reliable, as for the ability of water warfare, it still needs to be further tested in actual combat, fortunately, Jiannu does not know water warfare, and he does not even have a decent sailor, Zhang Mingzhen can complete the abuse of Jiannu in water warfare even if his ability is mediocre.

After finally determining the candidate for the commander of the water division, Zhu Youhua was worried about the problem of money again, when the holy decree of fundraising and courage was sent to the household department, Gao Hongtu spread his hands and had no money?

In order to be afraid that the emperor would say that he was bullying the king, he also deliberately calculated a general account for Zhu Youhua: Wuchang Zuo Liangyu had 50,000 soldiers, and the annual food salary was 1 million taels;

The four towns in Jiangbei each have 30,000 soldiers, a total of 120,000, and the annual food and salary is 2.4 million taels.

The Beijing camp has 60,000 soldiers, and the annual food and salary is 1.2 million taels;

The remaining eight towns, including Guoan, Huang Binqing, Huang Fei, and Bu Congshan, totaled 120,000 soldiers, with an annual grain of 2.4 million taels.

Not counting the imperial camp pro-army, not counting the local town garrison and guard generals, the total number of soldiers in the towns is 350,000, and the annual military salary is 7 million taels.

The expenses of hundreds of officials and royal clansmen, harems and court administration amounted to more than 2 million taels.

The total tax in Jiangnan is about 7 million taels a year. In the absence of drought, floods, insects and other disasters, it is still full of calculations.

Gao Hongtu provided Zhu Youhua with a tax table, showing the financial constraints of the imperial court, and the deficit had reached more than two million taels!

Seeing those shocking data, Zhu Youhua was also a little distressed, and at this moment, Lu Jiude whispered softly in Zhu Youhua's ear: "It's just some imaginary numbers on the books, the emperor doesn't have to worry, this situation, Xia tax has just entered the warehouse!" ”

After being reminded by Lu Jiude, Zhu Youhua knew that he was almost fooled by Gao Hongtu's old mallet, although those military salary expenses were correct, and the imperial court's finances were indeed tight, but it was calculated on an annual basis!

Now it is only three or four months since he ascended the throne, whether it is military salaries or Yulu, they are not sent to the hands of the towns at one time, and now the summer tax has just been collected, and the grain and silver collected in Jiangbei and Jiangnan are being escorted to the treasury of the household department in Nanjing, and the grain and silver in the major warehouses of the household department are estimated to have been piled up as high as a hill, so to speak, now is the time when the imperial court is the most wealthy!

Maybe in a few months, or even half a year, these silver money will have to be spent, at least for the time being, the household department is still very rich, except for the four towns of Jingying, Zuozhen, and Jiangbei, the strength of other military towns can be completely downsized on a large scale, reduce military expenditures, or suppress the food and salary of their troops, drag it out, and give priority to the imperial camp pro-army and the Yangtze River water division.

After figuring out the checkpoints, Zhu Youhua ordered the household department to allocate 500,000 taels of silver to recruit sailors and raise funds to buy warships, artillery and other ordnance.

Gao Hongtu refused to allocate it, saying that although there was a lot of money in the household treasury, it had a corresponding purpose, and there was no extra money to prepare for the construction of the sailor and the purchase of equipment, so please forgive your majesty for the difficulties of your subordinates. If His Majesty insists on doing it, the minister can only beg for the bones to return.

Zhu Youhua was very annoyed when he saw Gao Hongtu threatening to resign again, and he wanted to fulfill him immediately and change to a household secretary.

However, he soon calmed down again, and he really wanted to approve it directly, but instead fulfilled his loyalty, improved his prestige, made himself passive, and gave the Donglin Party a mouthful, and a faint hat must be put on.

He can not care about the thoughts of the Donglin gentry, but he can't not care about the thoughts of the citizens of Nanjing and the ordinary people in the south, at present, the Qing court is sharp, and it may control the horse to the south at any time, the situation in the Ming Dynasty is very critical, it is the time when it is necessary to unite the people, he must not give the Donglin Party a slander!

But if you don't win the lofty plan, you won't get the money of the household department, and you won't have the money to set up a sailor division and increase the capital to fight against Jiannu, which is an irreconcilable contradiction!

Therefore, no matter how ambitious it is, it must step down!

If the bright one doesn't work, then the dark one will come!

"Gao Hongtu! Do you really think I'm out of trouble with you? ”

Zhu Youhua raised his head and looked towards the place of the cabinet, with a fierce light flashing in his eyes.

……

In the early morning of 16 July, hundreds of soldiers dressed in Beijing camp broke into the gate of Dongcheng and shouted for money along the way, because it was a troublemaker, except for a few military academies with waist knives, most of the officers and men were armed with sticks.

The rebels walked all the way, smashed and robbed all the way, and there was a burst of chickens and dogs jumping everywhere, some of the tea shops and wineries on both sides of the street drank and chatted, and scolded Fang Xuan's children of the Donglin Fu Society, including Huang Zongxi, Hou Fangyu and others were also among them, they were in the Meixiang River house on the bank of the Qinhuai River and the courtesans were playing poems and putting on the right poems, so unhappy, they learned of the chaos in the city, and they went out of the river house one after another, and went to the rebel troubles, trying to stop the rebellion with justice.

They are all meritorious students, and there are even many people among them, who can compete with the county order and call them brothers and sisters in the local area. The country has always used literature to control the military, and in Beijing, even the face of the second- and third-grade officials can not be given, and if there is a broken boot formation, the cabinet bosses will have to take a detour, and they are all sideways characters everywhere.

Seeing that it was the Qiu Ba in the Beijing camp, they scoffed, not afraid at all, if it was replaced by other feudal town soldiers and horses, maybe there would be some fear, as for the Beijing camp soldiers, it was a hundred to look down on, hundreds of years of inheritance, those Qiu Ba in the Beijing camp have long lost their sharpness, whether they can pull the bow and carry the knife are two words.

Therefore, everyone was stunned and wanted to stand up for the people.

How did they know that these Beijing camp soldiers were all pretended to be Zhu Youhua's imperial camp soldiers, Ruan Dacheng was responsible for behind-the-scenes manipulation, and contacted Liu Kongzhao, Zhao Zhilong and others in advance, Liu and Zhao also secretly hated Gao Hongtu for deducting the Beijing camp salary, and the forces that were only taken in Donglin on weekdays did not dare to come recklessly, seeing that there was such an opportunity, or the emperor acquiesced, where was there any reason not to actively cooperate?

Ruan Dacheng had been bullied and beaten by the Donglin Zhusheng, and he had long hated them, he had long expected that those Donglin Zhusheng would definitely intervene in this matter, so he told a few leaders before the trouble, when they encountered the children of the Donglin Restoration Society who blocked the road, they didn't have to scruple about anything, they beat them hard, they were fine if they lacked arms and legs, just don't take their lives!