After listening to Zhang Jiayu and Zhu Cihong's words, everyone in the hall fell into a deep silence.

With the unremitting efforts of the Military Intelligence Department, especially with the cooperation of officials like Zhou Zhong, all kinds of major political points have been sent back in a steady stream.

At that time, there was no effective means at all to prevent secret spies from being carried out, that is, to strictly investigate the foreign population and suspicious people in wartime.

And there are not many rules to speak of when collecting intelligence.

However, the Military Intelligence Department established by Zhu Cihong with Jinyiwei as the team did a very good job.

The prices of the capital division, especially the price of grain, will be sent to Qingjiang every five days, and some prices may not even be known to Dolgon.

Because the inner city can only be inhabited by people, and the defense is relatively strict, the situation of the various garrisons is not very clear. However, while monitoring the outer city, the flag soldiers and flag people can be seen entering the city every day.

A large number of materials and personnel have been continuously coming from Shanhaiguan and Yongping Mansion, from Liaoyang to Shenyang, the Qing Dynasty has made plans to officially move the capital.

The situation in Yanjing, from the garrison to the price, to the behavior of hundreds of officials, public opinion has been sent back in a steady stream.

As for the development officials, they are secretly co-opting, and this kind of work is also very down-to-earth and is constantly being carried out.

Even Hong Chengchou is also within the scope of the crown prince's rebellion.

Originally, the Military Intelligence Department did not have the courage to do so, after all, Hong was a person who defected to Chongzhen in the thirteenth year, and he was a high-ranking person in the Qing Dynasty camp, and he was very trusted.

However, Zhu Cihong knew that after the first year of Shunzhi, Hong Chengchou had obvious signs of falling out of favor, especially within the Manchurian group, and his exclusion was very serious.

Seven years ago in Shunzhi, Lao Hong was in a very embarrassing and dangerous situation, until Shunzhi was in power, Yunnan, Guizhou, two lakes and two Guangzhous have always been messy, Li Dingguo also fought a beautiful Hunan campaign, killed the king of Jingjin County Nikan, shocked the government and the opposition. At that time, the founding kings were basically finished, the kings of Su, the kings of Yu, and the kings of Ying were all dead, and the second-rate princes, like Nikan, were useless.

At this time, Hong Chengchou re-emerged from the mountain, was trusted, and was in the military affairs of the five provinces of Nanjing, and this person did not live up to the trust of Shunzhi, the whole army was armed, and the hearts of the people were won over, and the Qing court was able to stabilize the southeast, and Hong Chengchou's credit should be the first.

This person is certainly shameful, hateful and killable, but at such a time, if he can win over, why push people out of the camp?

In this world, whether it was before, now, or in the future, is there a politician who is not shameless?

Why bother with a politician, especially a capable one...... Xia Wanchun seems to be still in Jiangnan, he should still be a teenager, I hope he doesn't have to be killed for insulting Hong Chengchou in this life.

Really, there is no need.

It was late, and everyone was still thinking nervously, and the candles swayed gently in the breeze outside the window, illuminating the huge military map on the wall.

According to intelligence analysis, the Qing army went all the way to the west and all the way south, and it was ambitious, like two huge pincers, and it was going to give Huaxia a pincer hinge.

How arrogant, how fierce, and how domineering.

But how can the crown prince conclude that Duoduo did not cross the Huai River directly from Henan as originally planned, or from Tianjin to Linqing, then to Dezhou, Jinan, Jining, and one route to Yangzhou via Xu Huai, and then to Nanjing?

Both routes are directly attacking the crown prince's territory, and if they are mobilized now, the Qing army will be able to reach the hinterland of Shandong by early October at most.

At most, by the end of this year, the Qing army will be able to reach the Xuhuai area!

And there is no problem with fighting in winter for the Qing army, whether it is a serious Tartar or a Han army of the Sanshun Wang, they are originally from Liaodong, and they are used to it in the ice and snow, how can they be stopped in the winter here in Huaiyang?

Under the lamp, everyone's faces became more and more gloomy.

Time is of the essence, too short.

"Your Highness, the armor bureau will stop building armor for the time being, and let's build more weapons first."

After a long time, it was Wei Yue who spoke first, he got up and crossed his hands, his face was very gloomy: "The Nanjing arsenal is limited, and it is too far from the cross treasury of the Beijing Division. Besides, the forbidden army also has to use armor, where is the surplus to support us? Now there are very few, last time we got more than 100,000 catties of pig iron, hit about 4,000 pairs of armor out, now it is almost tossed, buy iron from Ma'anshan, together with the freight is a large amount of expenses, we have silver, and we can't afford to toss like this...... Your Royal Highness, the leather armor is inlaid with iron or cotton armor, and it is all pretended, and then you can play the contradiction card with a knife, it is now July, and when the East Captives come in October, our new army will be able to go into battle! ”

This general has always rarely spoken out in major politics, especially outside of military affairs, even if Zhu Cihong asked, this general in charge of the army is just smiling and silent, and he is more devoted to training and battalions.

Unexpectedly, Wei Yue also understood the reserve and use of the army's materials very clearly!

Listening to his words, others didn't say anything, Feng Kaizhang and Li Gong nodded again and again!

The military horses and related items have been piled up, on the contrary, they have fallen behind in the important weapons, and Feng Kaizhang still has some other thoughts, since the Lu Mi gun is not easy to make, the heavy fire gun charge is troublesome and inconvenient to carry, so it's okay. However, artillery is a militaristic heavy weapon, and it needs to be cast in a hurry, and the Firearms Bureau has been trial-producing various guns and artillery for a period of time.

"Iron is the most important thing." Chen Mingxia didn't understand the overall situation at this time, but he continued: "We don't produce iron ourselves, even if we have iron-producing mines, we can't take care of it for the time being, we can only adjust it outside!" The Military Administration Department and the Quartermaster Department have repeatedly sent letters to the Ministry of Household and the Ministry of Industry, asking for more pig iron, saltpeter, sulfur, herbs, and cloth...... These important military funds have not reached much so far! ”

"What we have is silver, why don't we buy it ourselves!"

The establishment of the Department of Finance and Taxation, Zhu Cihong only just had an idea, but Gong Dingyu has been transferred from the Department of Military Affairs to the Department of Military Affairs to the Department of Quartermaster for a while, and Gong Dingyu naturally knows best, speaking of this, he is also full of energy, looking at everyone, and said with a smile: "There are no account books elsewhere, the military quartermaster has been set up here first, we have expenses since March, the establishment of various towns, sub-associations, military training, and financial expenditures, which are all paid by His Royal Highness the Prince, and there are also garrison battalions in Yangzhen, Huai Town, Jiangbei, with more than 31,000 soldiers, There are 5,000 horse troops, 2,000 sailors, and more than 100 boats, which are not controlled by the Dangjiang River, and the rest are infantry troops. There are more than 7,300 auxiliary soldiers, which are also at our expense, and when we set up a large camp in the Three Forks River, we also hired a master, and the expenses are also detailed account books. These, all add up to more than 400,000 silver and 200,000 stone grain. The expenses of the Pingyu army and various localities on the gold checkpoints, the expenses for repairing the barracks, and the expenses for salt supervision added up to less than 2 million, and the grain was 600,000 yuan. In addition, cloth, lacquer, wood, horn, sulfur, iron, these were originally a mess in the treasury of the Qingjiang Ministry of Industry, and we have all figured them out. Now every month, just using iron is more than 50,000 catties, casting cannons, building weapons and armor, which one doesn't want iron? Now there are less than 30,000 catties of iron, and if there is no more iron that has been transferred, it will have to be dumb everywhere. It's gunpowder and bowstrings, and they're well stocked, with more than a million arrows and more than 100,000 catties of gunpowder......"

"The gunpowder is not enough," Zhu Cihong interjected at this time, and said with a smile: "A hundred thousand catties of gunpowder for a test cannon or something is enough, and the artillery must practice firecrackers at the bottom, and the artillery must practice artillery, what is enough for a hundred thousand catties?" At least one million catties or more. ”

"Yes......" Gong Dingxiao swallowed a mouthful of saliva, and continued: "The silver brought by His Highness has probably been used up, but fortunately, the Generalissimo's Mansion didn't cost a lot of money to build, otherwise it would have been enough for a long time." At the bottom, the soldiers must be equipped with armor, weapons, and firearms, and this expense is terrifying...... The more than 4 million yuan obtained by donating officials is almost enough. ”

As soon as he said this, everyone who had been listening silently was startled.

Before recruiting new soldiers, Chen Mingxia and other civil officials felt that they used too much silver, and the settling-in fee rose from five taels to twenty taels, which was really unjustly spent.

However, when I saw that the morale of the new army was extremely high, and they were all children of good families in their hometowns, they had formed a bond to serve as soldiers, and there were no second-rate soldiers who were good soldiers, so everyone had nothing to say.

Next, the cost of military uniforms was a large amount of silver, and everyone felt pain.

In Huai'an Mansion City and Yangzhou Mansion City, also built Baozhong Temple, tall than the Confucian Temple, set up countless stone tablets in front of the door, prepare to engrave the names of the fallen soldiers, set up the main tablet of the gods, although the cost is large, but in order to enhance morale, stimulate public opinion, also have to endure.

In addition, the Generalissimo's Mansion spends like silver, just a news department, Nanjing, Zhenjiang, Suchangsongjiang and even Hangzhou, there are branch offices everywhere, and there is also a steady stream of news in the north to buy back, and the newspaper is losing money and selling, and Chen Mingxia feels like he wants to die when he sees the monthly expense.

Coupled with the administrative expenses, the prince got more than 2 million early flowers from his uncle Zhou Laoguo in Beijing, and now the more than 4 million donated to the official is said to be used well, why is it just tens of thousands of soldiers and horses, just "just enough?" ”

"A pound of iron is a penny and five cents, a battalion of soldiers needs a thousand knives and guns, more than a thousand pairs of armor, just these, even to build and then wear, each battalion of light pig iron will cost more than 10,000 taels."

"Cotton cloth, soft cooked leather, cotton rope, red silk cloth, fire paint, tung oil, etc., for armor making and military clothing, a large amount of silver is required."

"Helmets, arrows, sacks, water bottles, tents, which do not cost money? Artificial silver for crafting weapons, monthly rations, broken repairs, mules and horses, concentrate, guns, artillery, gunpowder, ......"

Gong Dingyu was very calm, and spread his hands and said: "Fighting a war is a matter of using silver, Guan Ning has tens of thousands of soldiers, and he uses millions of salaries a year, what is our money?" Moreover, what His Royal Highness wants to build is an elite that far surpasses Guan Ning, together with the salary, each battalion has all the equipment, at least more than 100,000, and the monthly salary and silver plus food and training losses are about 20,000, and it is impossible to say if the war starts. ”

(To be continued)