After reporting the overall report, Shi Hao did not continue. He consciously set aside time for the emperor and officials to review the problems reflected in this data.
Sure enough, everyone from Zhao Yu to Han Yuanji and Lu You, the Privy Council editors in charge of meeting minutes, looked very bad.
Han Yuanji and Lu You were busy writing, but after hearing this number, they stopped writing, raised their heads in disbelief, looked at each other, and then looked at the emperor and the newly-appointed court on the throne not far away. Senior officials.
They could not accept the fact that the Southern Song Dynasty defended with 180,000 troops, but was defeated by 60,000 Ming troops.
What's even more frightening is that this was almost a game in which the entire army was annihilated.
With three times more troops than the Ming army, they were completely annihilated by the Ming army. The Ming army also marched straight to the capital, all the way unimpeded. The Southern Song army was defeated like a mountain. There were few armies that dared to confront the Ming army. All of them ran away.
It can almost be said that the Southern Song Dynasty army was basically a bunch of rubbish, unable to defend the country at all. They gave so much military spending and ate so much food, but they raised a bunch of rubbish.
How does this make them feel embarrassed?
It is true that the situation in Jiankang Mansion is untrue and there are no 70,000 troops at all. However, even if his royal power took 40,000 free wages, the fact that the Song Dynasty lost 100,000 troops in the First World War is irreversible.
In the first battle, nearly 100,000 troops were lost, which was a quarter of the Song Dynasty's rated number of troops and a quarter of the number of troops in the country.
The Ming army used 60,000 troops in less than two months to wipe out one-tenth of the Song army.
As for the total number of Ming Dynasty military forces, as announced by Ming Dynasty, it is about 400,000, which is equivalent to the Southern Song Dynasty. The total number of troops dispatched this time is about one-seventh, which is not enough to mobilize the whole country. For Ming Dynasty, It can even be considered a small fight.
Therefore, the military gap between the two sides was clear at a glance. This terrifying gap made the monarchs and ministers of the Southern Song Dynasty feel cold from the top of their heads to the soles of their feet.
This situation is almost comparable to when the Jin army went south to invade the Northern Song Dynasty.
The Jin army was also so sharp at that time. One million troops in the Northern Song Dynasty were beaten to pieces by hundreds of thousands of Jin troops. In the end, they lost the capital, the emperor and the royal family, and half of the country. They even lost their pants.
What is slightly better now than back then is that the Ming Dynasty did not necessarily have the goal of conquering Lin'an and annihilating the ruling class of the Southern Song Dynasty. It was just to extort a sum of money to build the Yellow River.
Judging from their current performance, they really have no other goals. From the beginning, they just wanted to extort a sum of money to repair the Yellow River.
However, the Southern Song Dynasty relied on its own ability to forcefully change the situation of only paying a few years old coins to build the Yellow River to the situation of ceding land to the Ming Dynasty, paying tribute, which is not a god-level operation.
After the initial shock, the emperor and his ministers came to their senses.
Realizing that the current situation must be changed, if the military continues to be in such a bad state, the consequences will be disastrous.
Zhang Jun is undoubtedly the most angry one.
"The guilty must be punished, and those who deserve to be killed must be killed. Kill chickens to scare monkeys, kill one to serve as a warning to hundreds of people, rectify armaments, and train the army. This is something that cannot be delayed! Otherwise, the next time the Ming Dynasty will need money to build the Yellow River, it will not be far away."
Zhang Jun's words were supported by everyone present, and they all offered their own suggestions and ideas for the self-improvement and self-respect of the Southern Song Dynasty.
There were indeed many meaningful things in it, so Zhao Xun felt excited when he heard it, as if a new and powerful Song Dynasty Empire would appear soon.
He can lead hundreds of thousands of troops to fight back to the north, regain the lost territory, return to Kaifeng, worship his ancestors, comfort his ancestors, and let his ancestors know that he has fought back, and he has achieved great things that thousands of people have failed to achieve.
He's really looking forward to that future.
And in such a frenzy, Shi Hao was the only one who remained calm.
"Your Majesty, gentlemen, although the idea is good, every idea requires money. This premise cannot be ignored. The Song Dynasty must not only pay direct compensation of 6.2 million yuan to the Ming Dynasty, but also pay annual annual Coins, 250,000 silver and 250,000 bolts of silk annual coins, this was not easy for the Song Dynasty."
When everyone was making suggestions to train troops and strengthen the country, Shi Hao brought up the money issue in a very "disgraceful" manner. It was like everyone was stoking the fire, and he suddenly pulled off his belt and peed to put out the fire.
That feels really weird.
The warm atmosphere of a strong country suddenly stopped, and then slowly dissipated. Everyone looked at Shi Hao with strange eyes, even Zhao Hao, thinking that Shi Hao couldn't read the air and didn't see what kind of situation everyone was in right now. in the atmosphere.
But in the end they had to return to reality and realized that what Shi Hao said made sense.
Building a strong army and a strong country requires money, and what the Song Dynasty is most lacking now is money. There are many, many ways to strengthen a strong country and strong army, but making money is the most important. Only when you have money can you do things.
"Not only the compensation and annual coins to the Ming Dynasty, but also the post-war recovery of local areas and the compensation for the war dead, there is also the issue of official salt. The Ming army destroyed many large salt fields. Once the official salt cannot be provided, private salt will It will become popular and the salt tax revenue of the Song Dynasty will be greatly reduced.
Not only that, there is also maritime trade. Previously, the Ming Navy intercepted merchant ships in Suzhou Ocean, plundered goods, and drove away merchants. This greatly affected the maritime trade of the Song Dynasty. Even the prices in Lin'an increased greatly. So far, there has been no Recovery, people are complaining, these are all problems. "
Shi Hao sighed, looked at Zhao Xi's face, and said helplessly: "I know that Your Majesty desires to strengthen the country and the army, but before that, we must rectify the internal affairs, rectify the administration, rectify the salt administration, rectify the maritime affairs, and then we can A strong army and a strong country.”
Zhao Min lowered his head, looked ugly, and said nothing.
Zhang Jun couldn't sit still.
"Governing the country is of course important. Maritime trade and salt tax are certainly important. I know them all, but I don't agree with what Mr. Shi said about the issue of succession."
Shi Hao looked at Zhang Jun.
"What do you think Privy Zhang has to say?"
"I can't talk about it in person. I just want to say that everything Mr. Shi has to do takes time. If a strong country and army are behind, it will take even more time. Before that, will the Ming Dynasty give you time?"
Zhang Jun looked back at Shi Hao.
Shi Hao shook his head.
"I don't know what the Ming Dynasty will do. Privy Zhang doesn't know. Only Emperor Ming knows. What we know is that the Ming Dynasty is planning to build the Yellow River and change the Yellow River back to its original course.
For such a large project, the Ming Dynasty would definitely try its best to build the Yellow River and start a war at the same time. No matter how powerful the Ming Dynasty was, it would not be possible. Therefore, at least while the Ming Dynasty started to repair the Yellow River, the Song Dynasty was safe. "
Zhang Jun shook his head.
"That's because you thought the Ming Dynasty couldn't do it. Just as we all thought it was impossible for the Ming Dynasty to attack Lin'an with 60,000 troops, what happened? The Ming Dynasty defeated the Song Dynasty with 60,000 troops and made the Song Dynasty lose face. lose!
There are too many things we don’t know. Soldiers, the place of life and death, and the path to survival must be observed. The two are in no particular order and must be carried out at the same time. "
Shi Hao thought about it for a moment and then spoke slowly.
"Given the current financial situation of the Song Dynasty, it would be very difficult to handle government and military affairs while paying compensation and annual coins. At the same time, there must not be any natural or man-made disasters in the country, otherwise the Song Dynasty would not have the money to deal with natural and man-made disasters. .
Therefore, I still think we should be more prudent and stabilize the domestic situation first, and then wait until the government's finances are somewhat better, then rebuild the army, train the army, and enhance its military strength. "
Zhang Jun still doesn't agree.
"Principles are dead and people are alive. How can a living person stick to dead principles and stand still? Xianggong Shi, I know that you are doing things safely, and you will naturally handle the affairs of the government. We are all relieved, but Military matters must be dealt with without delay.”
Seeing that he could not persuade Zhang Jun no matter what, Shi Hao could only turn to Zhao Jun to make a request.
"Your Majesty, with the current financial situation of the Song Dynasty, it is very difficult to promote military reform and local recovery at the same time. The veteran believes that the war has just stopped and the Ming Dynasty will not easily resume. The Song Dynasty should concentrate its efforts Restore the local area, stabilize the finances, and then strengthen the army, what do you think, Your Majesty?"
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