The weather is getting colder, and the cold winds blowing from the north are getting more and more urgent every day.

When Chen Wang returned to Baituguan from the Zhushan camp, it was already the 30th day of October.

Yang Sichang commanded more than 20,000 soldiers and horses of Zuo Liangyu and Zu Dabi to return to Xiangyang, preparing to gallop south from Xiangyang all the way south to aid Yiling.

Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai's road south to eastern Sichuan was rugged, the march remained unchanged, and the mountains were many and the forests were deep, and many places were excellent ambush places.

If you want to pursue along the road, you must send a large number of scouts to constantly reconnoitre, and the speed of travel along the way is not fast at all.

It is better to directly turn south from Xiangyang to aid Yiling, although the distance is more than twice as farther, but the speed is much faster.

Time is pressing, the military situation is like fire, Yang Sichang naturally chose the latter.

Chen Hongfan and the more than 8,000 soldiers and horses led by him were arranged by Yang Sichang to guard Fang County and Zhushan, and rushed to guard against the remnants of more than 20,000 rogue soldiers hidden in the south of Zhushan and Fang County.

Chen Wang also got what he wanted so far from Yang Sichang - time.

Yang Sichang led the troops back to Xiangyang to protect the central part of Huguang, and the Sichuan soldiers who were originally transferred to Xing'an Prefecture returned to Sichuan to protect eastern Sichuan.

In this way, the junction of Hanzhong Mansion and Yunyang Mansion is naturally a lot empty.

As early as the beginning, Chen Wang had been passing on the news to Yang Sichang that he was recruiting new recruits and reorganizing the troops.

So this time, Chen Wang was also allowed to lead the troops to stay at Baitu Pass, and at the same time take Yunyang Mansion to guard.

The first is to guard against Zhang Xianzhong, Luo Rucai and other troops from going back and forth to re-enter Yunyang Mansion, and the second is to guard against thieves in Fang County and southern Zhushan.

Chen Hongfan, who stayed in Fangxian and Zhushan, is now naturally under his control.

"Brother Wang."

Not long after Chen Wang entered the Baituguan camp, Hu Zhiyi had already rushed from outside to enter the camp.

"The reorganization and assessment of the soldiers and horses of each battalion in the town have been completed."

Hu Zhiyi acted vigorously and resolutely, and it didn't take much time for Chen Wang to deal with all the things he explained.

"Zhang Er and Huanglong two guerrilla battalions, each with a cavalry division, the rest of the soldiers are infantry, a total of 3,000 soldiers, and the two battalions need a total of 6,000 taels per month."

Military salaries are generally not paid once a month, and are generally paid quarterly, such as spring pay, summer pay, and so on.

"The main barracks need a monthly salary of 9,000 taels, the right reinforcement camp needs a monthly salary of 5,000 taels, and the left reinforcement camp needs 4,000 taels a month, a total of 18,000 taels per month."

The right reinforcement battalion is the reinforcement battalion led by Chen Gong, and the left reinforcement battalion is naturally another battalion led by Zhou Yumao.

"There are a total of five battalions of soldiers and horses in the town, one regular soldier, two reinforcements, and two rangers, accounting for the generals and colonels and soldiers, with a monthly salary of 25,000 taels of silver, a quarterly need of 75,000 taels of silver, and an annual need of 300,000 taels of silver."

"In March of the recruit period, the infantry's salary will be halved and two taels of silver, but only the first quarter can save about 4,500 taels."

"The military salary issued by the imperial court is about 200,000 taels a year, and there is still a gap of 100,000 taels."

The military salary of each town cannot be paid in full, and arrears of pay at the end of the Ming Dynasty are the norm.

A large part of the reason why the deformed family system was formed in the middle and late Ming Dynasty was also due to the lack of military salaries.

Eating empty salaries and drinking soldiers' blood has gradually become a norm in the towns of the nine borders.

Hu Zhiyi put the paperwork directly in front of Chen Wang's desk.

"According to the current fiscal situation, military salaries will be paid for a maximum of one quarter, and then it will be impossible to pay them again......"

Hu Zhiyi's expression was a little hesitant and hesitated.

"The price of grain in Shaanxi is quite high, and if the grain is transported and sold, it can make the expenditure balanced."

Chen Wang unfolded the paperwork, and the current situation in Hanzhong Town was also clearly written in front of him.

The gap of 100,000 taels a year is just a military salary, and it is not a horse's chew.

The food allocated by the imperial court was not enough for so many people to eat, and if you want to raise so many soldiers, you have to buy it.

Counting the expenses such as eating and chewing, this shortfall will reach nearly 150,000 taels a year.

But in fact, the additional expenditure was still more than 100,000 taels.

Because of the grain and rice Han Zhongwei production, they kept a lot of it, which could be supplied to the army.

In a military transfer like the present, grain and grass can be allocated uniformly, and there can be leftovers, so although it is indeed an expense for people to eat and chew, it does not need to spend any money.

At present, Chen Wangling has a total of four major sources of income, namely mines, illegal salt, fields, and customs duties collected from caravans crossing the border.

"Don't mention the sale of grain, I will be useful in the future."

The output of the fields will basically not be exchanged for gold and silver, and Chen Wang knows very well that the famine at the end of the Ming Dynasty will last for a long time, and food will be the most scarce thing, so naturally it will not be bought and sold easily.

For this reason, Chen Wang even ordered people to build a large number of granaries in advance for storing grain.

These granaries were built in the bastions, and there were many soldiers stationed for defense.

The soldiers guarding the town are not only equipped with the latest naval oaths, but also have a lot of artillery.

Chen Wang built a total of seven forts in Hanzhong Mansion specifically for grain storage.

One next to each of the five guards of Hanzhongwei, and one of the two guards of the thousand households in Chuxian and Xing'an.

"In the future, food will only become more and more scarce, and selling grain is tantamount to drinking water to quench thirst."

"I have looked at the drought situation over the years, and it is now the twelfth thought from the beginning of the first year, and the drought has not only not disappeared, but has been expanding day by day, from the north to the south."

In the twelfth year of Chongzhen, there was a summer drought in Hanzhong, locusts in autumn, and all the seedlings were exhausted, and there was a great hunger.

In the thirteenth year of Chongzhen, there was a great drought, cannibalism, and all the plants and trees.

Chen Wang remembered very well that the drought in Hanzhong Mansion in the thirteenth year of Chongzhen was even more devastating than the damage caused by the twelfth year of Chongzhen.

"In the current situation, not only can we not sell grain, but we also have to collect and store grain."

Today, there are only more than 90,000 stone of grain hoarded in the granaries of various places.

It sounds like a lot of more than 90,000 stones, but if you calculate, more than 90,000 stones of grain can only supply more than 20,000 people for a year.

This is still all infantry, not cavalry, and at the same time not counting the loss of transportation.

Although the grain is quite sufficient now, when the world is in turmoil, 90,000 stone of grain is just a drop in the bucket.

The phrase "building a high wall, accumulating grain, and slowly becoming the king" was not outdated in the late Ming Dynasty.

Although the Ming Dynasty has declined and has long been in decline, the final counterattack is still capable of hurting people and even killing people.

In all dynasties, those who took the lead in raising the banner of rebellion were often killed by this final counterattack.

And the successor will step on the mountain of corpses and the sea of blood to clean up this great river and mountain.

Hu Zhiyi frowned, embarrassed.

"It's more difficult to buy grain now, Henan is drought, and the price of rice in Huguang and Nanzhili has also risen."

"The price of rice has risen to two and a half stones, this price is too high, and most of the grain and rice are shipped to Henan, and the Yunxiang war has caused the temporary closure of trade routes."

"Now that the balance of income and expenditure is already out of balance, it is already very difficult to maintain the army, and it is ...... to buy food."

It is precisely because he clearly knows the finances of Hanzhong Town today that Hu Zhiyi raised opposing opinions.

After thinking about it for a long time, Chen Wang finally chose to suspend the purchase plan of grain and rice.

"It is indeed not suitable to buy grain and rice now, and this plan can be put on hold for the time being."

Chen Wang's eyes narrowed slightly, the gap between gold and silver turned out that he really didn't have much to do, but now that he was ordered by Yang Sichang to manage the entire Yunyang Mansion, the gap in gold and silver was not difficult.

"The military salary is still paid in full, and I already have a way to deal with the financial gap."

"Hanzhong Mansion has no money, but Yunyang Mansion is rich."

In the first battle of Baituguan, tens of thousands of Liukou were defeated, and the main force of Liukou did flee to Fangxian and the south of Zhushan.

The information that Chen Wang reported to Yang Sichang was indeed not fake, but there were also many rogues who fled to other directions in Yunyang Mansion.

Therefore, Chen Wang also got an order from Yang Sichang - to clear the remaining thieves in Yunyang Mansion.

Although the gentry landlords of Yunyang Mansion have been swept away several times by Zhang Xianzhong and other rogues, several large cities in the north of Yunyang Mansion have not been captured, and there are still many gentry landlords.

Whether it is gold, silver, or grain and rice, those gentry and landlords in the north of Yunyang Mansion are not very lacking.

"How's the situation going with the Ordnance Bureau?"

On the side of the Ordnance Bureau, Tang Shiping, who stayed in the guard, was in charge.

Tang Shiping's ability to lead troops to fight is far worse than his ability to take charge of logistics, so Chen Wang simply let Tang Shiping manage the Weapons Bureau of Han Zhongwei all the time.

I don't know much about Chen Wang of the Ordnance Bureau now, and Chen Wang's focus has been on the battle situation these days to ensure that the development of events follows the trajectory he set.

"The Ordnance Bureau now has 381 armor craftsmen and 472 armor craftsmen, including 87 gunsmiths, a total of 853 people."

"Full production of armor can produce more than 300 collars per month, sea oath guns can produce up to 1,000 guns per month, and artillery can produce eight guns per month, not counting the time for making mud film."

The output of the sea oath is now very high, and now all the guns of the Hanzhong Guard Ordnance Bureau are drilled out of the barrels by hydraulic guns, which saves the production time to one-third of the original.

"Most of the current craftsmanship of the Ordnance Bureau has already used water power, and the water power that Brother Wang said before can not only be used to drill pipes, but also try to use water forging hammers to make armor, and there are also craftsmen who have improved it, but the skills are not yet mature."

"In the arsenal, there are 3,764 cloth iron armor, 4,758 sea oaths, 12 three-pound cannons, three five-catty cannons, and only two seven-catty cannons."

Hu Zhiyi also knows a lot about the Ordnance Bureau, and he also brought the data of the Ordnance Bureau.

"By the way, there are more than 1,000 of them that can be equipped with bayonets."

Full output is not the same as monthly output, and now there is no way to maintain the full production of the Ordnance Bureau in the current income and expenditure of Hanzhong Prefecture.

Most of the ore is an asset, but the labor cost and transportation cost are also costs, and the cost is still quite a lot.

Therefore, when some craftsmen who make guns do not make fire guns, they naturally cannot be idle.

Tang Shiping sent all of them to hand-polish the sleeves and bayonets for the produced sea oath guns, and many craftsman apprentices also joined the polishing sequence, so more than 1,000 sea oath guns wearing sleeve bayonets were made in this way.

The expenditure of the Ordnance Bureau has always been the bulk of the financial expenditure, and the market price of a collar of cloth and iron armor can rise to more than ten taels if you count the materials.

Although the cost of the sea oath has been reduced a lot because of the hydraulic gun bed and the proficiency of the skills, the market price of a rod still needs to be six taels.

Of course, the most expensive is the artillery, casting so many bronze cannons, the copper mines under Chen Wang's hands are naturally not enough, and many of them are ores purchased from outside.

The cost of a three-catty cannon is more than 300 taels, the five-catty cannon is almost 600 taels, and as for the seven-catty cannon, the price has reached 900 taels, and these guns have already gone to 7,200 taels.

And most importantly, artillery is easy to obtain, but artillery is difficult to train.

The live firing and training of artillery will be a large expense, and this money will already continue to walk in an outrageous direction.

"The sea oath is divided into 3,000 poles into my main barracks, and the more than 1,000 poles loaded with bayonets are all transferred, and the armor is also allocated to 3,000 collars, and the rest are allocated to Chen Gongling's reinforcement battalion,"

"As for artillery, two seven-pound cannons will be pulled to the main barracks, and the rest will also be allocated to Chen Gongling's battalion."

Chen Wang pondered for a moment, thought for a long time, and decided to arm the direct leader's main barracks first.

More than a thousand sea oaths with bayonets Chen Wang did not prepare to separate, but directly gathered them together and trained a thousand headquarters, which was the best arrangement.

"After a while, I sent a document to our Yang Pavilion Department, and I wrote four points, no money, no soldiers, no food, no armament, salary, soldiers, food, and armament."

Only crying children have milk to eat, and they must ask for money and food.

Otherwise, when the time comes, Yang Sichang feels that he is strong and strong, not only does he not allocate resources, but also makes him constantly turn to war, which is really difficult to solve.

"As for the hydraulic hammer......"

Chen Wang pondered for a moment and continued.

"The improvement of the process of making stamping iron armor by hydraulic forging hammer is put in the first place, and the relevant craftsmen are fully studied, if anyone can come up with an effective improvement plan, one hundred taels of silver will be rewarded, and those who will be thoroughly improved will be rewarded with five hundred taels of silver, and those who have improved before will be rewarded according to this example."

The defense of the cloth iron armor is good, but the cloth iron armor of a single pair is still a lot worse than the plate armor.

Forging hammers with water to make iron armor can not only save time, but more importantly, it can make one-piece plate armor.

A full set of plate armor is indeed expensive to build, and extremely bulky.

But Chen Wang never planned to make a full set of plate armor, he only needed to make the breastplate of the upper body.

Chen Wang's vision for the future is that ordinary soldiers are fully equipped, wearing a pointed iron helmet with a neck guard, an iron arm armor with ring rings, and a cuirass wearing plate armor.

"The Ordnance Bureau will not be expanded for the time being, the current scale is enough."

The scale of the Hanzhong Guard Ordnance Bureau is enough, but now it is due to the lack of money to play a larger production capacity.

Chen Wang put down the report handed by Hu Zhiyi, and the shortage of money was all problems that were revealed on the surface.

The deep-seated problem is that Hanzhong Mansion is such a big place, resources and population are extremely limited, and the development of power has reached the limit at present, unless it continues to expand, otherwise it is already the limit.

But continuing to expand is not realistic at the moment.

The pinnacle of the warriors is the general army of a town, which has reached the limit.

As an emperor, it is impossible for Chongzhen to delegate more power.

The system of the Ming Dynasty determined that the probability of a successful rebellion of the generals was simply minimal.

There isn't much Chen Wang can do now.

However, Chen Wang didn't need to do anything.

Because Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, as well as the Qing court in the north, will pave the way for him.