During the Xiaoice River period, the north was in great drought every year, and the weather was cold, and the output of the land was not even a stone of grain in one acre of land in one season, and the land on Leiden's side was not long reclaimed and could feed more than 280,000 people.

As for the grain for the expedition, Li Xingzhi is not out of the question, there is no grain in Shandong, but there is grain in the south of the Yangtze River, and he has just reached an agreement with the nobles of the southern capital on sea trade, and there is no problem in raising more than 100,000 or 200,000 stone of grain from them.

"How much silver is left in the Marshal's Mansion?"

Food is related to the stomach of the military and civilians in the jurisdiction, and the silver is the foundation to support the development and growth of the Jingbei Military Marshal's Mansion.

"Marshal, there are more than 6.86 million taels of silver and 110,000 taels of gold in the Marshal's Mansion, if it weren't for the thirty lucky boats we copied ourselves, we wouldn't need to use the silver you brought back from Yanzhou."

When it came to silver, Qian Anning was obviously a little proud, and his eyebrows fluttered to show his contribution to Li Xingzhi.

"Well, how can there be so much silver? Is there any income from the city's division? ”

Li Xingzhi was a little surprised, it has been two years since the Jingbei Army was transferred to Laizhou, and he only got 2.4 million taels worth of money and grain from the Dewang Mansion and the Jinan gentry, but in fact, the silver was less than 2 million taels, and the rest was mostly materials, and in addition, about 5 million taels were made in Qufu, which means that the start-up capital of the Jingbei Army was only 7 million taels.

The captured officers and soldiers and soldiers captured this time are not counted, the Jingbei Army had a total of five towns before, plus more than 4,000 green flag soldiers and more than 4,000 people in the water division town, that is, nearly 35,000 water and land troops, just the military salary, every month will cost 70,000 taels of silver, if you add the manufacturing bureau and Jiaoao City Bo Division and Jiangwutang, the monthly expenditure will be at least 120,000 taels, then the Jingbei Army has spent at least 3 million taels in the past two years, which is not counting their usual rewards, and now the military marshal's mansion actually has more than 6 million taels of silver deposits, so naturally the city Bo Division has begun to operate.

"Marshal Mingjian, after you set out on the expedition, your subordinates and others conducted several sea trades with Sado, Longden and several daimyo in the north of the Wa Kingdom according to the orders of the marshal, and made a total profit of 980,000 taels of silver, according to the distribution regulations formulated by us and the gentry of Jinan, they took 300,000 taels, of course, the first few times we were just a trial voyage, mainly to be familiar with the sea route."

Qian Anning's face was triumphant, obviously quite satisfied with the work he had done.

"Uh...... We just took the 680,000 taels of silver, which is not right, and the city has to spend it. ”

Zhang Shaoqian, Zhang Wu and others, who went on the expedition with Li Xingzhi, also looked at Qian Anning, although they were all military generals, but the number was still clear.

Xu Yixian, Yang Ji, Pan Duao, Sun Kewang and Li Dingguo and others who surrendered are also rapping, if we knew that this sea trade was so profitable, what kind of rogue did we use to be pirates, find a few islands to be pirates, rob merchant ships once or twice, and don't eat and drink spicy food every day.

"Don't worry, that's why!"

Qian Anning took out a few coins from his bag as if he were juggling.

Li Xingzhi looked at it fixedly, this money was the copper and silver coins he issued in the name of military tickets, after all, the head engraved on the money would not deceive people.

"Marshal, our Leyden's military tickets are light and practical, with high silver content and anti-counterfeiting, plus the credibility of our military marshal's mansion, and now our people in Leyden have no one to use the imperial court's money and silver, even the people of Jinan and Qingzhou are also willing to use our military tickets."

"It's just that Linqing saw that it was profitable, and there were gentry who took risks and imitated the coins of our Jingbei Army, but because the molds they made were quite different from ours, they were soon discovered by the people, and we have already caught more than a dozen gentry."

Qian Anning's meaning, Li Xingzhi understood, the Jingbei Army and the people of Lydon use silver coins, and the silver can naturally be saved, in fact, nearly half of the silver in the military marshal's mansion does not belong to the military marshal's mansion, but belongs to the copper coins and coins circulating in the market, as long as the Jingbei military marshal's mansion can guarantee its own reputation, then he will no longer have to worry about silver.

"Mr. Qian is doing a good job, and Ben Shuai will tell you about his merits later."

Li Xingzhi praised it, turned his head to look at Sun Zhijie, the ambassador of the Ordnance Manufacturing Bureau who came to the meeting, and said with a smile: "Brother Sun, how many completed weapons and equipment do we have in the Manufacturing Bureau now, which is enough for the 38,000 military horses and equipment brought back by this commander." ”

To tell the truth, when he was in Gaoyang, Li Xingzhi did look down on Sun Chengzong's grandson, thinking that he was a boastful son, but he didn't expect that Sun Zhijie was actually the person who helped him the most.

From the beginning of the preparation for the establishment of the Ordnance Manufacturing Bureau, Sun Zhijie not only provided himself with the "Illustrated Description of Ordnance" but also recommended Wang Hui to himself, which laid a good foundation for the weapon innovation of the Jingbei Army.

"Li Shuai, our Ordnance Manufacturing Bureau now has 10,000 finished long knives, 20,000 white guns, 15,000 wolf guns, 25,000 sets of cuirasses and cotton armor, 5,000 large-caliber arquebuses, 15,000 medium-caliber arquebuses, 20,000 strong crossbows, 60 other Hongyi cannons, 120 major general cannons, 500 600-jin small cannons, in addition to 140,000 catties of medicine. But it's a good choice. ”

Sun Zhijie's words wanted to be concise, and he looked completely businesslike, which made Li Xingzhi feel like a hot face on a cold ass.

However, Li Xingzhi was not worried, with this batch of equipment, he could completely select 25,000 people from the surrendered troops and organize five more towns.

As for the remaining 13,000 soldiers, Li Xingzhi was ready to hand them over to Li Dingguo, and set up an independent battalion head on the town's units.

In the original history, Li Dingguo's old base camp made the puppet Qing Dynasty Dingnan King Kong Youde, Pingnan King Shang Kexi and Pingxi King Wu Sangui frightened, and the soldiers of the Eight Banners were frightened.

"Brother Sun has done a good job, you can report the list of meritorious people of the Manufacturing Bureau to the Military Marshal's Mansion later, and the commander will be rewarded, but these equipment are not enough for the commander to call, and the Manufacturing Bureau needs to continue to work hard, if the copper and iron required are not enough, you can just ask."

"Hmm...... This copper and iron is still enough, there is a road to Qingzhou, Laiwu's iron ore can easily be transferred to Dengzhou, and Zhaoyuan has a copper mine, so Li Shuai doesn't have to worry, but the students have something to ask for? Please also ask Li Shuai to agree. ”

Sun Zhijie changed her previous lukewarmness, got up and threw herself to the ground at Li Xingzhi, with a resolute look on her face.