Early April, Beijing.
Early that morning, Liu Yan entered the Forbidden City in his official robes, followed by Wu Guojin, the Minister of Military Intelligence, and Tian Huixu, the Minister of National Defense. The New Army guards followed them from a distance.
Along the way, Liu Yan, Wu Guojin and Tian Huixu were discussing something in low voices, and soon they arrived at the cabinet lobby located on the east side of the Meridian Gate, where Liu Yan's office is located in Beijing.
To the north of the cabinet hall are the Hongbenku and the Chaofang respectively. The Hongbenku is where confidential documents such as cabinet documents are stored, while the Chaofang is where civil and military officials wait for summons and where ministers handle government affairs in the palace.
At the same time, in order to strengthen the connection between the cabinet and the inner court, Liu Yan, after petitioning Emperor Chongzhen, changed the address of the court meeting from the Palace of Qianqing to the south, which was originally the Hall of Supreme Harmony as a ceremonial place.
At this time, in the cabinet lobby, Zhao Min, the Minister of Civil Affairs, Yue Ming, the Minister of Finance, Xun Jingyun, the Minister of Equipment, Zhang Lei, the Minister of Agriculture, Song Gongming, the Minister of Commerce, Bao Xuezhen, the Minister of Health, Wang Wenzhen, the Minister of Personnel, and the General Staff Shangshu Chen Xinjia was already waiting here. When everyone saw Liu Yan and the others coming in, they all stood up and saluted.
Liu Yan smiled and gestured for everyone to sit down. Today, everyone in the cabinet gathered in the cabinet lobby for one thing: making money!
After everyone sat down, Liu Yan pointed out the topic, and then said to Yue Ming, the Minister of Finance: "Yue Shangshu, please tell me in detail."
"yes."
Yue Ming then took out a thick title book and said to everyone: "Mr. Liu Ge, colleagues, now that the Ming Dynasty's treasury is depleting, it is time to rectify the Ming Dynasty's income and expenditure."
Everyone hears
Yan was very surprised. Previously, the court raided 117 Donglin Party members, and the income of nearly tens of millions of taels was spent in just two or three months?
Yue Ming immediately explained and solved everyone's doubts.
Now the imperial court is in the process of training and mobilizing the new army and garrison troops in order to wipe out Li Zicheng's million-strong army.
Liu Yan ordered the rear battalion of the New Army to be stationed at Shanhaiguan, and the second battalion of the garrison to be stationed at Gubeikou, Juyongguan, and Xifengkou. These two battalions, with more than 20,000 soldiers, were specifically left to guard the north of the capital to guard against the Qing army.
At the same time, the third battalion of the garrison was stationed in Beijing City, and the fourth battalion of the garrison was stationed in Laizhou Prefecture and Qingzhou Prefecture.
The remaining New Army front battalion, left battalion, right battalion, middle battalion, guard battalion, cavalry battalion, artillery battalion, as well as the first, fifth and sixth battalions of the garrison all rushed to the Jingxingguan area of Zhendingfu to stand by. , ready to march westward to Shanxi to pacify Li Zicheng's tribe.
In this way, more than 110,000 soldiers from ten battalions were mobilized, and more than 400,000 civilians were recruited. Now most of them have been mobilized, and the follow-up money and food are being continuously gathered in the direction of Jingxingguan.
According to calculations by the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of National Defense, the imperial court must prepare enough money and food for the army for at least half a year, including more than 2.6 million taels of silver and one million shi of food and grass.
This is only the consumption required by the new army and the garrison. The more than 400,000 civilians need a lot of money and food for half a year. The Ministry of Finance estimates that they will need at least 2.16 million taels in wages, expenses, etc. for half a year. More than 40 The rations needed by ten thousand people would also consume 2.7 million dan.
Including the food and fodder needed by the army, the court needs to prepare a total of 3.7 million shi of food. This is
An almost astronomical expenditure!
Nowadays, there is insufficient food in the imperial court. The food taken from the homes of 117 Donglin Party members is only more than 800,000 dan. The Ministry of Finance can still raise more than 100,000 dan of grain from various parties, but the remaining is nearly 200,000 dan. With more than 1.7 million shi of grain, it was necessary to spend money to purchase it in large quantities.
Based on the current food prices in various parts of Northern Zhili, after the influence of hundreds of thousands of Manchu troops going south and the impact of drought in various places, the current food prices in various parts of Northern Zhili have risen to about four to five taels per stone. After the Ministry of Finance According to calculations, the expenditure on purchasing grain alone requires more than 12 million taels of silver!
Yue Ming frowned and said with a solemn expression: "The current inventory of silver in the Ministry of Finance, including the more than 9.3 million taels of silver seized from the traitor's house in Donglin, is 11.73 million taels. However, after deducting half a year's military expenditures for the army and the wages of civilian workers, there is only about 4.5 million taels left. There is still a gap of nearly 7.5 million taels from the more than 12 million taels needed to purchase food. !”
After hearing this number, everyone became uneasy and looked at Liu Yan.
Especially for Chen Xinjia, the current strategy for the army's expedition was formulated by the General Staff, and the minimum six-month period for the war was also given by the General Staff. If the court cannot come up with this money and food, it will be equivalent to completely overturning the General Staff's strategy. It is also a moderate blow to Chen Xinjia's status.
Liu Yan thought for a while and then asked Yue Ming and Song Gongming: "How much money and food does the shogunate have stored before?"
Yue Ming and Song Gongming looked at each other, and then Yue Ming said
Said: "Mr. Ge, the money and food accumulated by the shogunate still has more than 6.5 million taels of silver coins and more than 3 million stones of food. However, these money and food have already been used. According to the current speed of implementation of new policies in various places and the consumption of money and food, , after discussion with the Minister of Song Dynasty, at least four million taels of silver coins and two million shi of grain must be reserved for backup."
Liu Yan said: "Then use the remaining money and food as military expenses for this war."
Yue Ming said: "In this case, we still need to purchase 1.7 million taels of food. After calculation, the shortfall is still 510,000 to 200,000 taels."
Hearing the news, Liu Yan and everyone else fell into deep thought. At this time, Zhang Lei, the Minister of Agriculture, said in confusion: "Mr. Ge, our New Army has mobilized hundreds of thousands of troops before, but it has never been like this." Consumption, why do you need so much money and food this time?"
Zhao Min, Minister of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, also said: "Yes, before our new army went on an expedition, we only hired a few civilians. All the money and food for the army were transported by the army's baggage officers, and they all moved with the army. This is enough for the civilians." Save a lot of money and food.”
Everyone looked at Chen Xinjia. Chen Xinjia suddenly became nervous and said hurriedly: "It's like this. It was not that civilian husbands were not needed before. In the beginning, whether it was the Battle of Kaifeng or the later Battle of Jinzhou, the imperial court was responsible for the transfer of money and grain to the rear. , so there are not many civilians recruited by the Shandong Army, and the expenses are not very high."
"But things are different now. Even if a large army carries money and food with them, it is impossible to bring all the money and food for half a year. Therefore, enough civilians must be recruited to transport the money and food. This expenditure is inevitable.
"
Only then did everyone understand, and then they fell into the beginning of the problem: Where to raise money and food?
Liu Yan was also at his wits' end. After all, it was difficult for a clever woman to make a living without rice, and he also understood the dilemma of Emperor Chongzhen who was short of money and food.
At this time, Liu Yan thought of the ministers in the court. According to history, after Li Zicheng entered Beijing, he soon began to torture officials and relatives of the emperor. Liu Zongmin was mainly responsible, and he soon made tens of millions from these people. Two pieces of silver!
Liu Yan naturally thought of this method, but he couldn't do it. After all, he was not Li Zicheng, and he would not go back to Shandong to build a prison after "doing one vote", so fishing from the lake was absolutely not allowed.
Everyone discussed for a long time, but still couldn't think of a good way to raise money and food.
At this time, Wu Guojin said: "Mr. Ge, since we can't find the source of the money and food for the time being, my subordinates should mention another matter."
Liu Yan said: "Well, now the general staff's troop deployment strategy has been determined, the officers and soldiers of various ministries have been deployed one after another, and the civilian men have basically been recruited. Let's discuss the remaining issues of money and food. Let's discuss other things first."
Wu Guojin then said: "Mr. Ge, there have been many gentry and officials inside and outside the capital secretly colluding recently. Although it is not yet clear what they are planning secretly, what is certain is that it must be detrimental to Mr. Ge!"
Wu Guojin was equivalent to the former leader of the Jinyiwei. All the cabinet members present had a certain resistance to him, and even some fear. Therefore, after Wu Guojin finished speaking, everyone expressed their contempt for the officials in the imperial court and the gentry around Beijing. Sweated a lot.
Chen Xinjia is even more
I thought to myself: "Could it be that since the elder can't raise money and food, he wants to continue to get money and food from the officials in the court and the gentry everywhere? If you do this, you will kill yourself!"
Just when everyone was upset, Liu Yan said: "Let the people from Nanzhen Fusi of the Military Intelligence Department intervene and find out what they are secretly colluding with. If they are just using the topic to vent their grievances, let them do it." , don’t pay too much attention to it. But if someone is secretly plotting to undermine the New Deal, then don’t tolerate it, arrest those who deserve to be arrested, and kill those who deserve to be killed!”
Wu Guojin cupped his fists and accepted the order.
Then Wu Guojin said: "One more thing. The Military Intelligence Department has received news that there may be merchants in Zhangjiakou smuggling supplies to outside the customs and to the grasslands. It is said that the quantity is still very large. My subordinates have sent Yao Guangming, the commander of Nanzhen Fusi, to personally lead the people. Went to investigate.”
"Zhangjiakou?"
When Liu Yan heard these three words, he immediately thought of the eight notorious Shanxi merchant families in history, the eight famous traitor families!
In the chaotic times of the late Ming Dynasty, merchants in the Ming Dynasty generally rose up with the help of civil servants. These merchants were all unprofitable and could not afford to be young. They had no national justice in their hearts and only wanted to get a small amount of income.
For example, Fan Yongdou, the leader of the eight Shanxi merchant families, was originally a citizen of the Ming Dynasty. However, during the Ming and Qing Dynasty wars, he sold a large amount of materials and Ming army intelligence to the Qing Dynasty for personal gain. He "did not care about the survival of the Han people, but only cared about the family. There is nothing better than this for those who are selfish and forget about righteousness for small profits!"
If the Manchu Qing Dynasty did not have these traitor merchants who continuously supplied various strategic materials, would those Tatars have the advantage of iron weapons and rise so quickly? Maybe, but never
So fast!
Therefore, the Shanxi merchant group at this time was actually a traitorous traitor who sent swords and enemies to the enemy. In history, there were massacres such as the Jiading Three Massacres, the Yangzhou Tenth Massacre, the Jiangyin Massacre, and the Guangzhou Massacre. Such traitorous merchants were also among the executioners. , even to a certain extent, even more hateful than the real Tatars, although this hatred will never be eradicated!
At this time, Liu Yan stood up suddenly and said angrily: "Those who are secretly working together in the capital can only send people to beat them. There is a battalion of troops stationed in the city, and they can't cause any big trouble. The Military Intelligence Department is concentrated in the south. With all the power of Zhenfusi and Beizhenfusi, let me investigate all the merchants in Zhangjiakou, with the Shanxi merchants in Zhangjiakou as the main target, let me get to the bottom of it!"
Everyone was dumbfounded. Why did Mr. Ge's eyes jump directly to Zhangjiakou?
Wang Wenzhen asked tentatively: "Mr. Ge, is the cabinet's attention still on the raising of money and food, and preparations for the battle against rogue bandits? Even if there are merchants smuggling secretly in Zhangjiakou, it will not affect the situation in the world. , should we wait until Li Zicheng is pacified before we deal with it?"
"Yeah?"
Liu Yan said loudly: "Do you all think that secret smuggling by merchants is just a trivial matter? But I tell you that those Shanxi merchants are all extremely wealthy people, and the materials they traffic outside the customs are also very huge. Otherwise, you think they are satisfied." How could the Qing Dynasty build a well-equipped army of tens or hundreds of thousands? Can those dog Tatars mine enough iron and other materials on their own? Impossible!"
Everyone present was dumbfounded. Some people couldn't believe it, but Chen Xinjia sighed slightly.
, obviously knows something about the smuggling situation in various places in Jiubian.
Seeing the surprised expressions on everyone's face, Liu Yan said to Wu Guojin: "Within half a month, I will get the evidence proving that Shanxi merchants in Zhangjiakou area have liaison with foreign countries!"
Wu Guojin asked: "Mr. Ge, what if the crime is true?"
Liu Yan thought for a while and said: "I asked Xu Ming to lead a cavalry battalion to Xuanfu Town to wait for orders. After verifying the evidence of the crime, he immediately contacted Xu Ming and confiscated his home and exterminated his clan. There is no need to ask for instructions again!"
