As for the Ming army, Zhou Zhi and Zhou Zhixue discussed it and decided to meet the negotiators from the Southern Song Dynasty and let them enter the Ming army's central camp for negotiations.
In any case, it is okay to first understand the other party's bottom line, and then hold formal talks after the emperor's specific arrival.
Besides, if nothing else, war reparations are definitely needed. It would be better to talk about war reparations first this time.
"His Majesty the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty personally ordered Shi Hao, the negotiator and counselor of the current dynasty, to meet the general."
After Shi Hao led the Southern Song Dynasty envoy into the Ming army camp, he saw the Ming army negotiation team sitting upright and did not get up. He knew that this was a difficult negotiation, so he was not angry because the Ming army did not stand up to greet him. Instead, he lowered his stance.
Zhou Zhi was quite satisfied with this. He felt that this senior official of the Southern Song Dynasty had some clues and knew what the loser's attitude should be when faced with the victor's begging for surrender.
So Zhou Zhi nodded.
"This general is Zhou Zhi, the commander-in-chief of the Ming Dynasty's Southern Expeditionary Army. The Song court was sincere in sending Xianggong Shi to come for peace talks. But then again, the matter has come to this. If a certain Xianggong hadn't come to negotiate in person, I wouldn't have done it at all. He will be allowed in."
Shi Hao's heart trembled and he nodded heavily.
"The matter has come to this, our court's defeat has been determined, and there is nothing to say. This is called peace talks, but it is actually a begging for surrender. The defeated generals dare not speak out. I only hope that the peace talks will go smoothly, the war will end as soon as possible, and the suffering of the people will be spared."
Zhou Zhi and Zhou Zhixue glanced at each other, and each other could feel the surprise in their eyes.
This Shi Hao is indeed a bit unusual. He directly admitted that he was begging for surrender without caring about face. He seemed to be a hard-working official.
So Zhou Zhi allowed the officials from the Southern Song Dynasty to sit down. After the negotiation teams from both sides were seated, the negotiation officially began.
"In this battle, the Ming Dynasty won a complete victory. The horse infantry army won, the navy army won, and the Southern Dynasty was completely defeated. This is a fact. No need to say more. Do you agree?"
Some of the officials in the Southern Song Dynasty nodded in agreement with expressionless faces, some nodded in agreement with sad faces, and some nodded through gritted teeth with a look of humiliation on their faces.
no disagreement.
Based on this premise, many things can be discussed.
Since ancient times, the victorious party has been able to ask for a one-time war reparations from the losing party. Leaving aside other conditions, war reparations are necessary.
This compensation includes all the expenses incurred by the victorious party in launching the war, the military expenses incurred during the march and combat, as well as the pensions for the casualties of the soldiers.
All this money will be calculated on the losers, and then distributed to the army in the name of the winners. In every sense, it is a secondary injury to the losers and extremely humiliating.
But regardless, this is the winner's right.
When the money is added together, generally speaking, the more polite winner will multiply it by two, and the less polite winner will multiply it by three, four, or five.
According to the pre-war Ministry of Finance's estimate of this war involving 63,000 men, it was estimated that this local war would cost the Ming Dynasty 2 million yuan in military expenditures to be fought. Later, based on actual calculations, the figures were found to be the same as the original estimate. The difference is not big.
In order to organize the army, launch the war and war logistics, the Ming Dynasty had already spent 1.96 million yuan by the time the Ming army arrived at Lin'an City. Even if they saved money in many ways and tried every means to save money from unnecessary links.
This is by no means a small expense.
Although the Ming Empire's financial revenue is far more than this, there are more places where the Ming Empire needs money.
War expenses are not part of the empire's regular expenses. There is no budget in advance, and no feudal country will prepare war reserves in advance. They are all expenditures that occur at any time.
Therefore, every battle is a battle of wits and courage between the main war faction and the officials in charge of finance. Those with serious internal friction will pay a huge price for it, such as the Northern and Southern Song Dynasties.
The Ming Empire had unified orders and unified goals. The power to launch wars did not belong to the civilian government, but to the emperor and the military system. Any possible wars were discussed separately by the emperor and the military system, and the civilian government had no right to comment on it. .
The only Ministry of Finance that could participate could only make financial suggestions and had no right to object to whether to initiate a war.
Therefore, within the Ming Empire, Su Yonglin kept the internal friction in this area to a minimum and did his best to reduce costs.
However, no matter how to control costs, necessary expenditures cannot be reduced, so the war this time will still put a lot of pressure on the already tight finances of the Ming Empire. Fortunately, the existence of Bai Tiao alleviated some of the pressure.
But now that the war has been won, of course they have to get their capital back with profits, so after Zhou Zhi and Zhou Zhixue discussed it, they came up with a war compensation price of 10 million yuan.
This made the Southern Song Dynasty negotiators gasp, and even Shi Hao was a little frightened.
These negotiating officials, including Shi Hao, all had common sense and a good understanding of the economy. Many of them even had financial backgrounds and had a deep understanding of the chaotic and poor financial status of the Southern Song Dynasty.
According to the regular budget, launching a medium-intensity war involving 100,000 people would require approximately three million dollars in military expenditures.
In the Northern Song Dynasty, the civil servants of the Song Dynasty just calculated their accounts and felt that spending military expenses was too terrible. It was better to spend money to buy peace and give them annual coins. How much did they spend in a year?
This is obviously Da Song's profit, right?
How else to call these civil servants shameless?
They don't seriously consider that military expenditures are often one-time, and there is a chance to earn them back if they win. However, the annual coins are worth tens or even hundreds of years, and they still want silver.
Most of the silver was mined and refined in the mountainous areas of Jiangnan and Fujian. The Khitan people would not come to Jiangnan to get it themselves, but had to be transported by the Song people from Jiangnan to Hebei and delivered to them. The Song State had to bear the transportation costs during this period.
Isn't it just a matter of tormenting the people if the Song Dynasty takes it upon itself?
People along the transportation route need to bear the task of transshipment for free, which makes them miserable and affects agricultural production. The hidden losses caused by this far exceed the expenditures of military wars.
Of course, these are not important. As long as the scholar-bureaucrats can achieve peace, avoid war, and save military expenses, what does the life and death of the people have to do with them?
It was true then and it is true now.
As long as war compensation can bring peace, give it to him!
Anyway, it’s not our scholar-bureaucrats who pay for it ourselves, it’s not our own money, so we don’t feel bad about it at all.
Shi Hao is relatively conscientious, so he was surprised that the lion of the Ming Dynasty opened his mouth.
In this battle of the Ming Empire, even if they claimed to have an army of one hundred thousand, ten million dollars would be enough for them to launch three wars of the same scale at the same time.
That is almost the level of military expenditures for a war of annihilation that could destroy all three war zones of the Southern Song Dynasty.
This is a bit too open-mouthed.
Shi Hao knew that if this condition was agreed to, many of the following conditions would definitely cause the Southern Song Dynasty to bleed so hard that he would end up working for the Ming Dynasty after a year of hard work.
it's out of the question.
"Judging from the scale of the war and the number of troops sent by the Northern Dynasty, the cost of this war should be less than three million guan, but the Northern Dynasty asked for 10 million guan at the beginning. Could it be that the Song Dynasty was joking? "
Shi Hao immediately spoke out against this request.
Zhou Zhixue smiled.
"Xiangong Shi himself also knew that the Ming Dynasty was the winner and the Southern Dynasty was the loser. Isn't it the ancient truth that the victors take what they want from the losers?"
Shi Hao pursed his lips and shook his head firmly.
"The Song Dynasty is willing to pay compensation, but the Northern Dynasty cannot be so excessive. The amount of 10 million yuan is large enough to cause the same war three times. No matter how wealthy the Song Dynasty is financially, it is impossible for the Song Dynasty to spend so much money to compensate the Northern Dynasty."
Of course Zhou Zhi didn't ask for so much money. This was just a big opening for the lion to facilitate their bargaining. If he opened his mouth with a psychological expectation, he would only be beaten down by these cunning Song people.
Su Yonglin said before the war started that the purpose of this war was to obtain funds for regulating the Yellow River and reduce the burden on the people of the Ming Dynasty. It was also to accelerate the intensification of class conflicts within the Southern Song Dynasty and encourage them to self-destruct faster.
It is impossible to kill the Southern Song Dynasty in one breath, and the Southern Song Dynasty will not agree, so Zhou Zhi has no intention of blackmailing the Southern Song Dynasty to death. They can continue to bargain until Zhou Zhi and Zhou Zhixue's psychological price is reached.
Of course, if they agree before paying back that price, Daming Blood will make a profit.
So the two sides began to bargain.
Shi Haoli explained the economic difficulties of the Southern Song Dynasty and the economic damage caused by the war, and tried to cut off five million knives with one knife. Zhou Zhi was furious, slamming the table and accusing Shi Hao of not taking the losses of the Ming army into consideration.
In order to reach Lin'an, the Ming army has sacrificed more than 1,400 people so far and injured more than 5,000 people. Doesn't such a large number of casualties require compensation?
This was all caused by the Southern Song Dynasty army!
This is all money!
Eight million! Otherwise, no need to discuss!
Shi Hao cried about poverty again and kept talking about the financial difficulties of the Southern Song Dynasty. He said that the new emperor Zhao Yu had just ascended the throne. Even the enthronement ceremony used the simplest support, without any imperial demeanor. It has reached this point. There are only eight million in it. Money?
Five and a half million dollars! Otherwise there really won’t be any more! Not a drop is left!
