Qianqing outside the Prime Minister's Office.

Ten days have passed since the first official meeting of the Prime Minister's Office, and today the Minister of the Fourth Command ordered the Prime Minister to discuss the meeting again, and respectfully invited the Emperor to listen to the government, and summoned the Cabinet, the Celebrant Supervisor, the Six Ministries, the Five Governments, the Metropolitan Procuratorate, the General Administration Department and other temple officials to come.

Zhou Yanru is in a good mood today, he has been looking forward to this day for a few days.

He coughed and said impatiently, "Everyone has worked hard these days, but we have finally calculated all the arrears in the first half of this year and the expenses in the second half of the year." Now the household department has made all these reports, and it has been done completely according to the will of the county king. The household department submitted it to the cabinet, and the cabinet has prepared all the votes and handed them over to the prime minister, and today we will discuss this report, and if it passes, then hand it over to the celebrant for approval, and then wait for the money and grain of the county king to arrive in the account and put it into the treasury so that it can be withdrawn and paid. ”

Speaking of this, Zhou Yanru looked at the three Wu Fu on the side. "Wu Gelao, Liu Zongxian, and the county king, the report of the household department is on the cabinet's vote, you can take a look, and then submit it to the prince and the prince for approval."

The cabinet's vote was originally from Zhou Yanru and Wu Fu, so this vote was actually read by two of the ministers of the Prime Minister's Office and originally came from them. The only thing left is the attitude of Liu Zongzhou and Liu Jun.

Liu Zongzhou hadn't spoken yet, but Liu Jun spoke first.

"Before submitting the report to the Cabinet, the report of the Ministry of Household Affairs is submitted to the Prime Minister for reading according to the process." Liu Jun's words are not in a hurry, unlike Zhou Yanru, who always has to take a tone, but his words also reveal a momentum, he glanced at Zhou Yanru, "I have read the report of the Ministry of Household before the cabinet vote, and today I have read the vote of the cabinet again, I dare not agree with the cabinet vote, and I dare not agree with the report of the Ministry of Households." I can't accept it. I am against the approval of the vote, let alone the approval of the red. ”

"Why?"

didn't wait for Zhou Yanru to jump out, but Liu Zongzhou also opened his mouth.

"Can the prince explain the reason for his objection?"

Liu Jun replied slowly, "In this budget, the Ministry of War has the largest amount of money, of which the arrears of soldiers and horses in the nine towns of Gyeonggi alone amount to 6 million silver dollars. In addition, there are more than 2 million yuan for the replacement of ordnance, the replenishment of war horses, and the manufacture of chariots and vans. In addition, the arrears of wages, pensions, allowances, and rewards for the three towns in western Liaoning outside the Guanxi, plus the expenses for restoring defense, building cities and forts, etc., also amounted to more than 6 million yuan. ”

"In addition, several major military regions such as Shaanxi, Sanbian, Shanxi, and Xuanda also requested more than 2 million yuan for each military region."

Liu Jun pointed his finger heavily on the table, "These few requests from the Ministry of War alone have reached more than 16 million silver dollars. I just want to ask the officials of the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Households, do you really have the heart to handle this matter? Or do you report as much as you want from below? ”

Zhou Yanru named Li Banghua, the secretary of the household department, and Chen Xinjia, the secretary of the military department.

"The two Shangshu will answer the question of the county king."

"Okay, then I'll answer the county king's question first." Chen Xinjia, the secretary of the military department, stood up and said.

Chen Xinjia also came prepared today, and he opened an account book.

"Last year, the imperial court rectified the world's soldiers and horses, and a total of 36 towns were organized across the country. Among them, there are 15 towns in the five major military regions of the Northern Frontier, and 9 towns in the three major camps of Gyeonggi. Nowadays, there are 30,000 soldiers in each town, and there are 270,000 soldiers in the nine towns of Gyeonggi alone. There were also 90,000 war horses, and 90,000 horses. The cost of raising troops in the nine towns of Gyeonggi. On average, the soldier was ten silver dollars per month, which included the soldier's salary, rations, horse feeding, weapon supply, maintenance, officers' salaries, and rewards, pensions, and so on. ”

"Calculated in this way, only the soldiers and horses of the nine towns of Gyeonggi. It will be 2.7 million yuan per month, and 10.8 million yuan in April. Now that the arrears have been in arrears for nearly four months, there is no problem with the repayment of more than 8 million silver dollars. ”

Liu Jun snorted coldly, he should be a liar. 2.7 million pieces in January. That year, it was 32.4 million yuan, and even if it was converted into silver taels, it would be more than 16 million taels. According to such military expenditures, the entire financial revenue of the 200,000 soldiers and horses raised by Daming Guang in Gyeonggi is not enough to spend.

In the middle of Chongzhen, the imperial court collected more than 10 million taels of three salaries every year, plus other income, less than 20 million taels of silver, most of which was used for military expenditure. Among them, there are five or six million taels of silver drawn to Liaoxi outside the Guanxi every year, and there are also a large number of grain and grass equipment.

For the rest of the towns on the nine sides, the total annual military expenditure is only eight or nine million taels.

The issue of military salaries in the Ming Dynasty was actually very complicated. In the early years, it was the guard system, and the guards had their own military tuns, and each guard had some military households in the tuntian, and some of them defended the city, and then each guard took turns to go to Beijing every year to guard the capital.

Most of the grain cultivated by the guards themselves went to the warehouses of the guards to become the military rations of the guards, and some of them were distributed to military households to become their rations. Back then, Zhu Yuanzhang once said very proudly that I would raise a million soldiers without spending a grain of grain for the country.

However, in the later period, the guards were corrupt, and most of the tuntian fields were occupied by officers, and the military households were reduced to officer tenant farmers, and their armaments were not repaired, and their combat power was unbearable. Eventually, the imperial court had to implement a battalion system in the border areas. Recruit young and strong soldiers from the guard post or local area to guard the frontier. In this way, the military salary will have to be paid.

The salary of the soldiers in the border army camp is not high, about one or two per month, but the military salary of the border army is not only salary, but their military salary is composed of four parts: salary, monthly salary, ration, and reward. In addition to wages, there are also rations, once the army is to be sent out, another ration must be issued, and in most cases, there must be a silver draw, and in a battle, there is often a reward to boost morale.

If the border army is only stationed, then the cost is still less, once it is necessary to send troops to fight, or even to aid Liao from a long distance, or to the king of Qin, or to the south to quell the rebellion, it will greatly increase the expenditure, and many border troops will not be paid for food and salary when they go out, so they will make a riot and rebel outside, and go directly back to their hometowns.

At the time of Chongzhen, the system of guards had completely collapsed, and it was basically useless. The border army relied on recruiting soldiers to fight, and the soldiers of the border army were basically divided into three categories, those from their own towns were the main soldiers, those from other towns were guest soldiers, and the local people recruited were native soldiers.

At the beginning, the main soldiers did not pay their rations, and the guest soldiers did not pay their monthly rations, but later, the wars were frequent, and in order to boost morale, they were supported by monthly trips, and salt, vegetables and silver were added.

At that time, the court spent the most on these guest soldiers, and the salary of the guest soldiers was three times that of the main soldiers.

Before Chongzhen's death, he reorganized his troops and horses and completely abolished the guards. In the formation and training of the new army and the recruitment of non-commissioned soldiers, there is no longer a distinction between the main soldier and the guest soldier, and even the military salary is no longer a line ration, a monthly ration, salt and vegetables, forage, salary, and so on, but is uniformly distributed in silver dollars.

It turned out that the salaries of the border troops were about two taels. The head officer is taller. Gyeonggi soldiers and horses are also paid a higher salary. After the rectification, the salaries of the soldiers and horses in each town were divided into three grades, and the eleven towns in Liaodong, Liaoxi, and Gyeonggi and the Beiyang Naval Division were ranked first, and the average value of each soldier was five silver dollars after the true color of each soldier was folded, and the nine towns of the three major military regions of Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Shandong were the second rank of the border army, and the average monthly conversion of each soldier's true color was four silver dollars.

Then there were the soldiers and horses of the other towns, and each soldier was converted into three silver dollars per month.

Although it was originally set to be a true color fold. The army supplies food, no longer issues grain, monthly rations, salt and vegetable money, etc., and also uniformly issues silver dollars, no longer folded colors, but rewards and pensions still have to be calculated, in addition to horses and mules, ordnance replenishment, etc.

But.

No matter how much you spend, it's limited. In particular, Gyeonggi and the five major military regions last year to this year. I haven't fought a war for more than a year, and if I don't fight, the military budget will naturally not be too much. It's just basic food expenses.

Liu Jun doesn't even use his head, he only needs to count with his feet, he can't even calculate, just four months of arrears, Gyeonggi has more than 8 million yuan in arrears of military expenses.

Even if it is calculated according to the first-class military salary, each soldier will be five yuan per month. In the nine towns of Gyeonggi, there are 270,000 people, and only 1.35 million pieces of silver, even if 180,000 horses plus horses and mules, it will not exceed one million.

It all adds up. At most, it was about 2 million, but the military department reported more than 8 million.

What's more, Liu Jun had already found out about the nine towns of Gyeonggi, saying that the nine towns were all fully organized, but in fact, the nine towns were basically reorganized by adding some soldiers drawn from other towns to the original three battalions.

And the Beijing camp has long been rotten, the Qing army entered the customs several times, and the Beijing camp could not even hold the Beijing division, and it still relied on the border army to Qin Wang. In fact, the officers ate a large part of the empty salary, and then the remaining ones, and many of them were paid by the name, and they were hired for service, so what does it mean?

It is to spend money to buy officers, and then you can register a name on the roster, and then receive a monthly salary and monthly ration, but in fact, there is no training at all, and there is no duty. When he encountered a drill and review, he would spend money to hire an idler or a flower child on the street, and send him to the camp to fool him around.

The vacancies plus these names account for most of them, and most of the old and weak people in the remaining Beijing army can't do anything, they just eat and wait for death. The rest of them were recruited by the emperor's relatives and noble ministers in the capital to watch the door, guard, or directly pulled to work.

Anyway, the 270,000 troops named Nine Towns can really be regarded as soldiers, that is, a very small part, and this part is still the family of those generals.

Liu Jun believes that the Ministry of War must know about this situation, the Ministry of Household Affairs also knows about it, and the cabinet also knows about it.

But these people were all fooling around together, fooling Chongzhen back then, making a rectification of the Beijing army, and organizing and training nine towns. In fact, changing the soup does not change the medicine.

Now they are fooling Liu Jun again, and with the roster, they dare to ask Liu Jun for 8 million.

Liu Jun sneered.

"Ben Bing, how did you calculate the monthly silver of more than 2.7 million? The true color of the Beijing army is only five silver dollars per month, and it is only 1.35 million yuan a month. What's more, although the imperial court owed money for April, it only owed silver for the grain. And as far as I know, it's not that all of the April salaries are owed, first of all, the officers' shares are paid, and the soldiers are also paid 30% of the monthly salaries,"

Liu Jun tapped the table again.

"Even if there were 270,000 soldiers and horses, the arrears for four months would be only 3,780,000 silver dollars. Ben Bing, you tell this king, where did he get these more than 8 million silver dollars? ”

"Also, in front of His Majesty, do you dare to say that there really are 270,000 troops in the nine towns of Gyeonggi?"

Zhu Cihong sat on the top, watching his righteous brother majestic in the hall, so that Chen Xinjia, the secretary of the military department who had served as the governor of Xuanda and Shanxi, was speechless, and felt very excessive.

"Brother Huang, don't you have an army of 270,000 in the nine towns of Gyeonggi?"

The emperor's words made Chen Xinjia sweat down. Of course, there is no army of 270,000 in the nine towns of Gyeonggi, in fact, the real Beijing army is at most about 70,000 of 270,000.

The rest are either empty salaries, or spend money to pay for food, and many are old and weak, and many of them have been recruited by various wealthy and noble ministers in Beijing and even major yamen.

This is an unspoken rule that has always been an unspoken rule, and everyone knows it. The reason why no one stabs it is because there are too many people's interests involved.

Chen Xinjia didn't dare to answer.

Liu Jun snorted coldly, "Ben Bing, Your Majesty asked you something." ”

"Well, basically, there is."

"What do you mean basically there is? Yes is yes, no is no. "Liu Jun is aggressive.

"Yes!" Chen Xinjia could only turn his neck sideways at this time, and said nonsense with his eyes open.

Liu Jun smiled, he didn't expect Chen Xinjia to dare to say such a thing at this time. But it's better in this way, now that he admits it in front of the emperor, he won't be able to rely on it in the future.

"Oh yes? Your Majesty is also here today, and the king has proposed to His Majesty that it is better to hold a military parade in the northern suburbs of Desheng Gate in five days, and His Majesty will personally review the demeanor of the soldiers in the Beijing camp and boost their morale. ”

Zhu Cihong was very interested in this proposal.

Nodding his head again and again.

Liu Jun took advantage of the victory to pursue, "Five days later, Your Majesty will personally inspect the soldiers and horses of the three towns of the Praetorian Guard Battalion, and check the roster at that time. Ladies and gentlemen, if it is found out that there are really enough soldiers, then this king will also pay the full amount of silver dollars. ”

Chen Xinjia sweated on the back of his clothes, and now he really regretted why he had just said that he had it. What should I do? Five days later, the northern suburbs of the university parade horses, there is Jun, an expert, can still fool him. Then he could see the problem at a glance.

What can I do?

He glanced at Zhou Yanru and Wu Fu, the two elders, but unfortunately both of them looked like they were looking at their noses and noses at this time. Both of them are old foxes, and they have long understood that Liu Jun has caught Chen Xinjia's sick foot. Liu Jun is going to stand up for power, although they don't want to see this result, but in this current situation, Jingying is a pit, whoever jumps into the pit.

Liu Jun smiled slightly, "Don't approve the budget of the Ministry of War for the time being, and after the review, we will talk about it, how about it?" ”

What else could Zhou Yanru and Wu Fu say, they could only nod and agree, and Liu Zongzhou would not object. He knew about the many shortcomings of Gyeonggi, but the water there was too deep for him to manage. Now that Liu Jun is willing to take the lead, he is naturally willing to beat the drum in the back to cheer. (To be continued.) )

PS: Thank you for only reading and not writing, thank you!