"The matter in the southwest, at the moment, the rebels are huddled in the deep mountains of Guinan, and I have 110,000 regular soldiers and 50,000 auxiliary soldiers, a total of 160,000 troops."

"The strength of the rebels, combined with the main and auxiliary soldiers, is only about 130,000."

"With the current difficulty, the first thing is that the rebels are trying to entangle with our army in the mountains and forests of Guinan, and I am afraid that they will be entangled for a long time."

In the Qianqing Palace, Ye Xianggao told the story of the southwest, and the amazing thing was that in the small land of Guizhou, there were nearly 300,000 soldiers and horses fighting.

Such a scale is much larger than when Yang Yinglong was quelled.

If it is according to the standards of the Wanli period, it is now the first major expedition of the Apocalypse.

The ministers discussed the situation in the southwest, and after Ye Xianggao finished speaking, Yang Lian took the initiative to stand up and say:

"Long live, the affairs of the southwest should not be rushed, and they should be slowly planned."

"Long live, Yang Du is very much said in the matter." Zuo Guangdou also stood up, and then Zhao Nanxing and others also supported it.

At this time, Qi Chu, Zhejiang, Xuankun and other officials of the five parties naturally did not urge, after all, they also wanted to make the Lu'an Rebellion last longer, so as to achieve the purpose of making merits.

However, the interior of Donglin is always not an iron plate, no, when everyone did not speak, suddenly a Donglin Yushi stood up and said:

"Long live, the minister thinks that the rebellion should be quelled as soon as possible, and then the troops will be transferred to aid Liao, and the 300,000 troops of our dynasty will be leveled and captured!"

"Exactly! Minister Zhao Deming seconded! ”

"Minister Li ......"

Donglin began civil strife again, after Gao Panlong was kicked out of the court, it did not mean that Donglin's mouth cannon was dead, on the contrary, they were vigorous again.

Although Yang Lian, Liu Yixiao and others within them all felt that they wanted to do it slowly, they just wanted to do the opposite.

To put it bluntly, the main fighters can win a lot of popular hearts.

The common people were blindly obedient, especially the people of the Han dynasty, whose pride was unimaginable in other countries.

Even in the Qing Dynasty, where the people were enslaved, when it was the turn of the war to discuss, it was a group of proud and complacent people clamoring for the main battle.

In fact, they don't know what the main battle means at all, they only know that the momentum cannot be lost, and the reputation cannot fall.

After all, he had heard a lot of opinions on the war in the southwest from his younger brother, and knew that the southwest was not as high as the Central Plains and the north, with high mountains and dense forests, and it was impossible to fight a quick decisive battle.

At present, Gao Chongming wants to delay time, which is obviously tempting the Ming army into the mountains and looking for an opportunity to encircle and annihilate the Ming army.

This is a time when the rebels should not take the initiative to attack, but wait for the morale of the rebels to drop to the bottom.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youxiao used the words he heard from Zhu Youzhen to sort it out before he spoke:

"The rebels occupy the land of Guinan, one prefecture, four prefectures and two guards, and these places have scarce arable land and few people, and the acres of land they have created are only more than 2 million mu."

"How can we feed an army of 130,000 with more than 2 million acres?"

"The reason why the rebels are not attacking at the moment is because they have taken countless amounts of money and grain from various states, and the military department has not even calculated how much money and grain has been plundered by the rebels?"

Zhu Youxiao's words, from the initial explanation, to the rhetorical question, to the final questioning of the military department, were completed in one go.

When Cui Jingrong, the secretary of the Ministry of War, heard this, he immediately stepped forward and saluted and reported:

"The rebels plundered about one million taels of silver, 2,370,000 stones of grain, and more than 6,000 cattle and horses......

Cui Jingrong's words are based on the data that was roughly inferred from the household department's compilation of local people and government treasury.

Such data also shows that with more than 2 million stone grains, the rebels can hold out in the Guinan area for at least two years.

This means that the Ming army should be prepared to fight a protracted war with An Bangyan in Guizhou.

"I don't know how much grain and silver money I have in Guizhou?" Zhu Youxiao asked, and Wang Yingjiao, the head of the household department, heard what he said, so he replied;

"The military rations in Guizhou are less than 420,000 stones, and the silver is 230,000 taels."

"Fortunately, a few days ago, Wan Sui sent one million taels of silver to support, and Xu Keqiu, the governor of the five provinces, made proper arrangements and raised 1.26 million stone of military food to support Guizhou."

What Wang Yingjiao said was the silver taels that Zhu Youzhen allocated in the name of his imperial brother a few days ago, and Zhu Youxiao naturally knew it.

When he heard this, he glanced at Zhu Youzhen, but found that his younger brother was looking at his nose and nose and heart.

He didn't say anything about this, but continued to speak:

"King Qi, in your opinion, what should we do now?"

Here it comes......

When the ministers heard the emperor ask the king of Qi, they knew that this was to summarize the southwest.

In the past, every transfer of troops and horses was decided based on the emperor asking the opinion of the king of Qi, and this time should be no exception.

For a while, everyone's eyes were focused on Zhu Youzhen, and in response, he responded with a thorny gaze:

"The younger brother thinks that now is the time to recruit troops in Guizhou, first let the various departments restore their strength, and then tentatively encircle and suppress the rebels."

"Recruitment? When do you have to wait? ”

"yes, and the silver taels for recruiting soldiers are also a problem."

"Alas...... The land of the five provinces has been unable to make ends meet because of the things it has raised, and I am afraid that the silver grain has dried up now......"

As soon as Zhu Youzhen spoke, the ministers began to discuss in an instant, but what they said was also the truth.

At present, the Ming Dynasty is already 160,000 auxiliary troops in Guizhou, and if we recruit more troops, I am afraid that it will exceed 200,000 soldiers and horses.

However, for these words, Zhu Youzhen complained at the time and continued to speak:

"At present, the soldiers and horses of the five provinces, such as Sun Chuanting, Hong Chengchou, Wu Aheng, Yang Wenyue, Du Wenhuan, and even Zhu Xieyuan, Sun Chuanting, Hu Yingtai and other departments have lost thirty percent or even more than half of the soldiers and horses."

"The current situation is just that the total number of our troops is greater than that of the rebels, and in fact, the elite has been exhausted."

"Brother Banzai, please allow the troops to recruit troops in Guizhou, and pay silver, armor and stomach ......"

When it came to the silver, the people booed, for they knew that the court was not rich at the moment.

Last year, we barely survived a year without arrears, but at the cost of the depletion of the treasury.

Zhu Youxiao saw the appearance of the ministers booing, so he looked at Ye Xianggao and said:

"Elder Ye Ge, how much grain is there in the treasury right now?"

"......Forehead" Ye Xianggao was also a little embarrassed, and immediately responded:

"Taicang has 4,210,000 stones of rice, 1,220,000 stones of wheat, 824,600 taels of silver, and 1,200,000 stones of grain in Nanjing."

"There are 620,000 taels of silver in the Ministry of Industry, 350,000 taels in Taifu Temple, and 320,000 taels of silver in Guanglu Temple."

"In total, there are two million one hundred and one hundred thousand six hundred taels of silver, and six million six hundred and thirty thousand stones of rice and wheat."

As soon as Ye Xianggao opened his mouth, everyone's hearts immediately cooled.

This has just passed the first month of this year, and there is only so much left for 26 million Ishida Fu, more than 5 million taels of silver, and more than 3 million taels of taxes?

Everyone's questions were answered by Wang Yingjiao:

"Long live, after the arrival of the autumn tax of last year, the soldiers and horses in each town transferred a lot of grain, plus the arrears of the four towns in the northwest, the stomach, and the salaries of hundreds of officials, and spent a lot of silver."

"Coupled with the follow-up disaster relief from the Huaibei Great Famine and the follow-up disaster relief after the Yellow River burst, it is not easy to have the current situation."

It has only been more than five months since September, and the treasury of the Ming Dynasty has been emptied of two-thirds, which is still the result of the support of the Imperial Horse Supervisor and the sharing of the money and food of the soldiers and horses in the four towns of the Nine Sides.

If it weren't for the sharing of the pressure from the Imperial Horse Warden, I am afraid that there would be no arrears of wages this year, and it would be as high as seven or eight million taels.

However, in this regard, except for Wang Yingjiao, who is in charge of the household department, and a small number of people, everyone else feels that the Imperial Horse Supervisor has not done anything good.

"Long live, the younger brother suggested that 1.2 million stone grains from Nanjing be transferred to support Zhu Xieyuan, and then 1.29 million taels of Taifu Temple, Guanglu Temple, and Jieshen Treasury, which would be escorted to Guizhou by Leopard Taowei."

"In addition, you can also leave Leopard Taowei to return to Sun Yingyuan's moderation and conquer the rebels."

"In addition, the Imperial Horse Supervisor can give another million taels of silver to escort him south."

Zhu Youzhen suddenly spoke, which originally made everyone frown, but when they heard that the imperial horse supervisor could give one million taels of silver, they stopped talking.

Zhu Youxiao saw that not long after his younger brother had only paid out the silver, and he wanted to pay another million taels of silver, he immediately said in pain:

"The Imperial Horse Supervisor also has to bear the money and food of soldiers and horses in Shangzhi, Shanxi and other places, and there is so much silver, I'm afraid it will be ......"

"Long live don't worry, the Imperial Horse Supervisor has enough money and food." Zhu Youzhen responded, not to say big things, but to say that the money and food of the Imperial Horse Supervisor at the moment are really enough.

Liaodong's grain sales have begun to come to an end, and a sum of silver was transported to Beizhili, which was spent by Zhu Youzhen.

But even so, there are still more than three million taels of silver in the treasury of the Imperial Horse Supervisor.

There are still 1.5 million stones of grain stored in Liaodong that have not been sold, and there are still more than 1.6 million taels of silver deposited.

Due to the control of the war situation, although the grain prices in Sichuan, Huguang, Jiangxi, and other places have risen somewhat, they are not too exaggerated after all.

More than two million taels of silver went south, and it was more than enough to buy back five or six million stone of grain.

So counting it, the Imperial Horse Supervisor has more than five million taels of silver, and it is not difficult to take out one million taels at the moment.

Therefore, looking at his younger brother Yun Yu's light expression, Zhu Youxiao could only nod and say:

"In that case, according to what King Qi said, let Leopard Taowei escort the money and grain south."

"Long live the Shengming ......" hundreds of officials sang one after another, and at the same time, Zhu Youxiao also waved his hand and said:

"Alright, stand down."

......More than 40 ministers retreated one after another, and in the end, only Zhu Youzhen, Cao Huachun, Zhu Youxiao, Wei Zhongxian and others stayed in the palace.

As the ministers left one after another, Zhu Youxiao also stepped down from the high platform, sighed and said:

"The state affairs are difficult, my younger brother transferred more than 2.5 million taels of silver in a short time, plus the money that is included in the internal money, I'm afraid the Imperial Horse Supervisor doesn't have much silver, right?"

"Not really." Zhu Youzhen didn't say how much silver he had, because he was afraid that his imperial brother's head would be hot, and he would use it to build the three major halls, so he said:

"After the spring rains, the salt farm can start to make a profit, and I think I can still harvest a lot."

"The problem at the moment is that in the direction of eastern Liao, if you don't curb the old slave and let it develop, I'm afraid it will gradually encroach on the Monan tribes."

"Encroaching on Mo Nan?" Zhu Youxiao frowned slightly and said:

"That Tiger Rabbit Dun is also the leader of the Tatar tribe, and there are tens of thousands of iron horsemen under his command, so it shouldn't be encroached upon, right?"

Tiger Rabbit Dun is the private name of Lin Dan Khan by the monarchs and ministers of the Ming Dynasty, and Zhu Youxiao does not believe that Lin Dan Khan will be eaten away because of Lin Dan Khan's excessive boasting.

You must know that there are only four or five hundred thousand Mongols in the entire land of Monan, and Lin Dan Khan did not make people submit, so he always called the lord of 400,000 Mongols, which made people laugh and be generous.

In fact, there are only more than 100,000 people in his headquarters, and there are only 40,000 or 50,000 men who can be pulled out to fight.

If Lin Dan Khan really had 40,000 iron horsemen, he would not have fled to Qinghai by Huangtai Kedah.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youzhen could only say: "Brother Huang, don't look too highly at Beiyu." ”

"If it weren't for the current war in the southwest and the need to maintain stability in Liaodong, the ministers would have recovered the Hetao a long time ago."

"Huh...... Is that. Zhu Youxiao smiled, and then took Zhu Youzhen's hand and walked towards the Heart Cultivation Palace.

As soon as he entered the Heart Nourishing Palace, Zhu Youzhen saw a model of a battleship about a foot long.

Zhu Youxiao turned around and introduced him: "Brother, this is the model of the warship I set, based on my brother's drawings, and after changing it, the connecting part solves the problem." ”

"The people from the shipyard came with news early this morning and confirmed that there is basically no problem."

"Right now, we only need to accumulate experience in building large ships, and we can build ships with sufficient materials."

Zhu Youxiao brought good news to Zhu Youzhen, and Zhu Youzhen also smiled at this:

"If there is a warship, then we can go to the Great Ryukyu and Liaodong to escort the ship, and bring the wood for the construction of the three major halls."

"Haha......" Hearing that a lot of wood from the three major halls could be pulled, Zhu Youxiao also smiled happily.

However, after laughing, he seemed to remember something again, and hurriedly pulled Zhu Youzhen to sit in the main and secondary positions.

"What does my brother think about the affairs of Liaodong and Southwest?"

Zhu Youxiao inquired, and in this regard, Zhu Youzhen also had a draft, so he said:

"This time to transport money and grain to the south, it means that the imperial court has spent 3.5 million taels of silver."

"These silvers are mainly handed over to Sun Chuanting, Hong Chengchou and other six people, followed by Du Wenhuan, Mu Zeng, Hu Yingtai and others."

"Three million and five thousand taels of silver, of which two million taels of silver are allocated to six people, and with their ability, it is estimated that they will be able to train 100,000 soldiers and horses by the end of the year."

"At that time, the rebels will inevitably be frustrated by the offensive and shrink again and again."

"When the contraction reaches a certain level, you can transfer Sun Chuanting, Cao Wenzhao, Sun Yingyuan, Yang Wenyue and other four people to lead the troops to aid Liao."

Zhu Youzhen's idea is very simple, that is, to exercise the ability of the four of them to lead the troops, as long as they can achieve the ability to lead more than 10,000 troops in the mountainous area, then the main battlefield of the four of them will be Liaodong.

The terrain of Liaodong is not as bad as Guizhou, if they can lead more than 10,000 troops in Guizhou without chaos, then they can also go on a northern expedition with Qi Yuanfu and others.

Moreover, after transferring them to Liaodong, they can also take advantage of the situation to dismiss Liaozhen.

Li Rubai came with news a few days ago, and as Zhu Youzhen expected, Zu Dashou and others were really willing to go to Guyuan with Li Rubai.

In this way, the faction of Liaodong generals is only left with Zhu Wanliang and Jiang Bi's thirty or forty thousand auxiliary soldiers.

This amount of troops, as long as they are free, can be eliminated immediately.

When the time comes, the soldiers and horses will be collected and reorganized, and the strength of Liaodong will reach about 200,000.

With 200,000 troops and a lineup of Qin Bangping, Qi Jin, Sun Chuanting and others, Zhu Youzhen did not believe that he would not be able to recover the entire territory of Liaodong.

As long as the whole territory of Liaodong is recovered, you can go north along the Liao River and the Songhua River, and build a city all the way.

In this way, while immigrating to settle and reclaiming, while defending Houjin, in disguise, let the Houjin turtle shrink south of the Songhua River and Heilongjiang.

This is Zhu Youzhen's strategy, but it may not be achieved.

After all, people are not dead, and this strategy is easy to see.

Once the old slave sees it, he will face three choices, one is to evacuate to the north, one is to enter the court, and the other is to retreat to the Horqin grassland.

Of the three options, Zhu Youzhen was more inclined to retreat to the grassland.

But in the future, as far as Jin's current situation is concerned, as long as he retreats to the grassland, as long as he experiences a few white plagues, he will cause more attrition than combat attrition.

If it was Huang Taiji, he would definitely be able to make up his mind, but Nurhachi couldn't.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youzhen said to Zhu Youxiao:

"If Liaodong is recovered, then the younger brothers want to transfer Sun Chuanting, Sun Yingyuan, and Yang Wenyue to Shaanxi, Shandong, and Henan."

"My brother wants to ......" Zhu Youxiao frowned, as if he heard his brother's thoughts.

"Well, abolish the guards of the three provinces!" Zhu Youzhen nodded vigorously.

He wanted to abolish the guards in the three provinces, not only for the sake of the military tuntian's field endowment, but also to expand the imperial store and sanction the vassal king.

"The Legend of the Fairy Tree"

At present, the reason why Huangdian can't break through Xi'an, Nanzhili, and Henan and start a local market is not because of the obstruction of local merchants and gentry?

So why is there no one in Beizhili, Shanxi, Liaodong, and northern Shandong?

Because there are really soldiers and horses to be deployed in these three provinces, once the Jinyi Guard finds out the crime, no one can survive under the transfer of soldiers and horses.

Therefore, dismantling the guards, stationing soldiers and horses, and then using the imperial store to open up the market, so as to expand the market for selling salt, is what Zhu Youzhen wants to do the most.

At present, there are only three provinces, and the salt works get millions of taels every year.

As the expansion continues, more and more salt farms will be obtained, and the more financial resources will be provided, and the financial problems will be fully solved.

From the deliberations just now, it is not difficult to see that Daming does not have a centralized financial department at all, and the household department can only manage Taicang.

The Ministry of Industry, Taifu Temple, Guanglu Temple, the Ministry of War, and each ministry have their own treasury, and in this case, the transfer of money and grain in the Ming Dynasty will fall into the mutual conflict of several departments.

Therefore, let the Imperial Horse Supervisor centralize the finances to ensure that Zhu Youzhen wants to expand the basic plan.

However, the three provinces he wants to abolish are not as good as before.

Zhu Youxiao pondered for a moment, thinking about how to say it so as not to hit his younger brother's thoughts, so after a while, he spoke:

"Shanxi, Beizhili, and Henan are three prefectures, but there are only four vassal kings, so there is not much resistance to the younger brother's abolition and innovation."

"But right now, in the three provinces of Shaanxi, Henan, and Shandong, there are 12 vassal kings, 152 county kings, and nearly 30,000 clan disciples."

"In such a situation, among the vassal kings, there are still such existences as the king of Fu and the king of Zhou, and my younger brother thinks ......"

"Wherever the soldiers and horses went, no one dared to resist!" Zhu Youzhen's mouth suddenly blocked Zhu Youxiao's mouth.

Not only that, but he continued:

"At the beginning, among the kings north of the Yellow River, the Zhao Wangfu belonged to Henan, but the courtiers still dismissed him, and the other vassal kings did not react much at that time."

"Brother, don't you see? The vassal king had no military power, and all he had was the family of that place. ”

"They didn't raise troops against their brother in the name, and Wenchen wouldn't help them, because there was no righteousness and no military power."

"Military power is a fist, and what is righteousness? Righteousness is brother! ”

Zhu Youzhen said very bluntly, he knows very well the characters of Zhu Youxiao and the two brothers Chongzhen in history.

is longer than a woman's hand, so playing around, or playing with power and tricks, can never play with the army.

Although Chongzhen woke up in the later period, began to seize the army, and built the Yongwei Battalion, because of an error in judgment, the Yongwei Battalion, which was supposed to be used to deter Wenchen and collect taxes, was sent by him to the Central Plains to quell the rebellion.

In Zhu Youzhen's view, the first thing to do when there is an army is to deter civil servants, that is, to snatch financial resources and taxes.

Only by mastering the army and mastering the finances can the team snowball.

There are armies that have no financial resources, and civilian officials can draw the army to their side as long as they are willing to give up money.

There is a treasury and no army, and a third of the silver is lost before it leaves the capital.

If there is politics and no army and no finances, the country will fall into a stage where its armament is sluggish and the people are struggling to make a living.

Therefore, the importance of the three is finance-military-politics.

When necessary, it can also be military-financial-political, but it can never be political-oriented.

The emperor who is mainly political, and it is Jiajing to the extent of playing to the ceiling.

Jiajing can't save the current Daming, only Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Di, and Zhu Jianshen's path can be imitated.

Zhu Youzhen knew everything, so when he said what he thought, he looked at Zhu Youxiao directly.

After Zhu Youxiao was woken up by Zhu Youjian, he remembered that all kinds of methods in the past were carried out immediately by relying on his younger brother and the imperial horse guards.

If he only has his younger brother, and his younger brother has no soldiers, the plan will not be carried out.

So all this goes back to Zhu Youzhen's sentence.

"Morality is military power, and the emperor is righteousness!"

Zhu Youzhen continued to speak, and frowned tightly and said:

"Wenchen follows the etiquette system, since he recognizes the imperial brother, he will recognize the imperial brother as the emperor and is a great righteousness."

"If the vassal king raises an army, it is unjust, and if he fights with great righteousness, and if he fights with strong soldiers, how can he lose? How can I lose? ”

Cao Huachun and Wei Zhongxian were a little dazed when they said it, and Zhu Youxiao also swallowed his saliva, but Zhu Youzhen looked at his imperial brother and said solemnly:

"My brother is the emperor, what is there to fear from the vassal king?"

"Could it be that there are more than 200,000 soldiers and horses in the Imperial Horse Prison, and they can't suppress this small land of three provinces?"

dared to use the land of the three provinces as "small" to be known, and only Zhu Youzhen was the only one.

Maybe he knew how big the world was, and he knew how luxurious it was to waste time on the land of the three provinces.

What are the places where the Ming Dynasty has a legal system and can be recovered?

The Three Propaganda and Six Comforts of the Indochina Peninsula, the Annam Metropolitan Envoy Division, the Old Port of Nanyang, and the Luzon Official Factory.

In the southwest, the military and civilian prefectures of Usizang, Dogan, and Oli are located, and in the northeast, Nurgan is located.

These are all places where there is a legal system that can be recovered by sending troops to recover, and there are even more places where troops can be stationed.

How many vassals were there in the Ming Dynasty? There are as many places where troops can be stationed.

Why did later generations always say that they were wary of the great powers in the East to restart the Ming Dynasty's suzerain-vassal system? The reason is that the scope of the clan system is too broad and too large.

As long as there is a subject country, it can expand its territory in the name of the subject country and send external resources back to the country.

The army is only a garrison, and the economy is the most important thing.

Closer to open up, far away to maintain the clan system, this is the way to make the Ming Dynasty to a higher level!

In the face of Zhu Youzhen's stubbornness, Zhu Youxiao was finally persuaded by his younger brother, although he was still worried.

"It is okay to abolish the three provinces, but it must be after recovering the lost territory in Liaodong."

Zhu Youxiao made a request, but in general, he still admitted his younger brother's ideas and plans.

"It's nature!"

got a response, Zhu Youzhen smiled and responded.

He knew that in order to complete his own plan, he must make good use of the Rebellion of Lu'an and train batches of soldiers and generals who adapt to the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau.

These generals will play a very important role in the recovery of Sanxuan Liuwei, the Annam Metropolitan Division, and the recovery of Nanyang.