October 26, the first year of Chu Chengshun and the eighth year of Chongzhen in Ming Dynasty.
Wuchang City.
At this time, Wuchang City has begun to gradually restore people's livelihood. Although there are still many soldiers patrolling the streets, shops along the street, especially grain stores and other shops related to people's livelihood, have gradually opened for business.
People began to cautiously walk out of their homes and onto the streets where there were still a lot of traces of the war.
Although Wuchang is still Wuchang, these streets are still the same streets, but there are additional traces of war and blood stains on the ground that have not yet been washed away, as well as the soldiers of the Hometown Protection Army patrolling the streets with swords and guns.
All of them announced to people that Wuchang City had just gone through a war and had changed its owner.
The new owner of this city is the Chu Empire and Luo Zhixue.
In the Dachu Palace, Luo Zhixue was holding a meeting with senior civil and military officials such as the Finance Department, Taxation Department, Military and Political Department, General Staff Department, and Logistics Department.
The theme of today's meeting is relatively simple, that is, a preliminary report on a series of gains after the army went south and conquered the entire Wuchang Prefecture.
Major General Wei Kaifu, the military’s Minister of Military Affairs, took the lead in reporting a series of matters related to prisoners of war.
"Since our army crossed the Yangtze River and moved south, up to now, it has accepted a total of surrendered soldiers, and a total of more than 38,000 surrendered soldiers have been captured. However, the overall quality of the more than 28,000 surrendered soldiers is worrying, and is far inferior to that of the original Zhongxiang Battle. The quality of troop reduction.”
"Most of them are ordinary local guardsmen and temporarily recruited county warriors. A considerable number of them have not received professional military training."
"Only some combat soldiers and personal soldiers have received professional military training. The total number is about 4,000."
"For this batch of prisoners of war, after selection by our Military and Political Department, it is expected that approximately 12,000 garrison officers will be selected."
"Currently, according to His Majesty's instructions, the new garrison soldiers on the western front have been assigned to the Eighth Garrison Division. Some of the garrison soldiers on the central front have been replenished to the Sixth Garrison Division, and some have been replenished to the Seventh Garrison Division."
At this time, Chief of Staff Xu Zhixian said: "After this drop of troops, the Sixth Defense Division will return to full strength, the Eighth Defense Division is expected to have 6,000 troops, and the Seventh Defense Division is also expected to have six thousand troops. Thousands of troops.”
"After a period of training, the Seventh and Eighth Garrison Divisions will be able to assume initial combat missions."
"The logistics department will take care of the seizure of various munitions and trophies!"
Immediately, Major General Yu Xiujie, Director of the Logistics Department, said: "Your Majesty, our army has seized a total of about 30,000 pieces of various types of knives, spears, bows and other cold weapons since crossing the Yangtze River south, and another 3,000 pieces of various types of armor. , but there are only 800 pieces of armor that meet our army’s quality standards.”
"In addition, we also seized 26 short robes of various types weighing more than 200 kilograms, and more than 200 light cannons of various types weighing less than 200 kilograms!"
"At present, the above-mentioned captured cold weapons and old artillery have been selected and can be used to supplement the Sixth Guards Division and equip the Seventh and Eighth Guards Divisions."
"The rest of the inferior weapons that are incomplete and do not meet the standards for use by our army have been delivered to the Finance Department and used as raw materials for recycling."
"We also captured 873 draft mules and horses, and 126 mounted war horses that can be used by cavalry. The above-mentioned horses have also been supplemented by the above-mentioned three garrison divisions!"
"In terms of food and grass, our army has captured a lot of food and grass, especially the food and grass captured in Wuchang City is enough to last one of my main divisions for half a year!"
"In addition, a number of tents, carriages and other military supplies were seized."
"Finally, we also captured 26 large and small warships, and now we have added all of them to the Yangtze River Fleet."
"The above-mentioned types of seizures are all military supplies, and they do not cover the confiscated materials that can be used for military supplies!"
The military's harvest is relatively simple. It basically consists of three categories: weapons, grain, mules and horses, plus some miscellaneous things. These materials all have a common feature, that is, they are directly captured by the army, and at the same time, they can be directly captured. Replenish the army.
In fact, the military also transferred some of the seized materials, such as cloth, gold and silver, to the Finance Department.
After the military side finished speaking, it was the Finance Department's turn.
Speaking of which, the Finance Department was the biggest winner in this battle across the Yangtze River, because regardless of whether it was the material gold and silver seized by the military or the large amount of gold, silver and materials confiscated by the Taxation Department, in the end, except for military supplies, they were directly left in the military All other matters must be brought under the jurisdiction of the Finance Department and then uniformly allocated.
Huang Chengxuan, the Secretary of the Ministry of Finance, was obviously in a good mood now. After everyone from the military had finished speaking, he picked up a ledger and flipped through it and said, "Your Majesty, we have gained a lot from going south this time!"
"In terms of gold, silver, copper coins and other cash alone, at least three million taels were seized. Especially in Wuchang City, the harvest was huge."
"We seized a large amount of gold and silver from the Prince of Chu's Mansion, and then during the large-scale raids and confiscations in the city, we confiscated a large amount of gold and silver. We also gained quite a lot from the seizures and confiscations in other places!"
With that said, Huang Chengxuan turned his attention to Chen Xingkai, the Secretary of the Taxation Department: "Thanks to the efficient work of the Taxation Department, we were able to achieve such results in just half a month. It's amazing!"
Then he turned his attention to the three generals of the military: "My colleagues in the military are also indispensable. Without the bloody battles of the soldiers at the front, we would not be able to talk about the gains here."
Chen Xingkai, the Secretary of the Taxation Department, nodded slightly after hearing this. In this report meeting, he Chen Xingkai did not need to report anything. After all, he was only responsible for making money, but he was not responsible for saving money or counting how much was confiscated.
However, as the minister of the money-making department, Chen Xingkai still got a seat at this meeting.
Several generals in the military were also smiling. Xu Zhixian nodded to Huang Chengxuan and joked: "They are all working for His Majesty. It is not hard work. Besides, the people in your Finance Department are also It’s not easy, there is so much money and supplies, it’s not easy just to count them!”
Huang Chengxuan chuckled: "Isn't that right? After every battle, you are busy at the front, but when the battle is over, it is our turn to be busy."
"This time, in order to count the various seizures in a timely manner, our Finance Department has dispatched more than 300 people to various places to carry out counting operations."
"In Wuchang City, dozens of us stayed up for two days and two nights in order to count all kinds of cash and store it in the warehouse."
Chen Xingkai, the Minister of Taxation, also said: "It's not easy!"
Luo Zhixue, the superior, couldn't help but smile after hearing these words, but it did not stop the courtiers from joking with each other.
After all, today is a great day, a great day when millions of taels of silver and countless supplies have been paid into the account. The ministers are in a good mood and are joking with each other, and Luo Zhixue is also in a pretty good mood.
After joking for a while, Huang Chengxuan continued: "This batch of cash is still a temporary harvest. At present, we are still continuing to confiscate various recalcitrant officials, wealthy gentry, and colleagues from the tax department. They are also continuing to work to target tax evasion and tax evasion matters." A severe crackdown, and it is expected that at least hundreds of thousands of taels of silver will be received in the next half month!"
"After this battle, our current cash reserves have not decreased, but have increased a lot. Now they have exceeded 10 million taels."
"At the same time, the grain and grass reserves have also been greatly increased, not to mention that we also control the entire grain-producing area of Wuchang Prefecture, plus the production of Chubei, I have no worries about the grain and grass in Chu!"
"In addition, we also control Daye and obtain a large amount of iron and copper output. Relying on the raw material output here, plus other iron ore and copper mines we control, we can no longer purchase from outsiders in the future. It is enough to add iron and copper materials and produce them for your own use, and there is even a large amount of iron leftover that can be supplied to the people for making agricultural tools."
"Your Majesty, colleagues, the future is promising!"
After saying that, he laughed first.
After hearing this, Luo Zhixue laughed in a good mood, and several other courtiers also smiled.
Everyone knows what this money, grain, iron and copper mean.
Money means administrative expenses, salary subsidies for soldiers, and guns and ammunition.
With this money, the Da Chu Empire can continue to maintain rapid military expansion and war, and does not have to worry about running out of money to fight wars.
Not to mention food and grass. The Chu Empire could be without a tael of silver, but it couldn't live without food. However, Huguang itself was a food-producing area.
In the modern era of the late Ming Dynasty, the saying that Huguang cooked enough for the world has been widely circulated, which shows the grain output in Huguang area.
These days, the food produced in Huguang is not only supplied to the people of Huguang for their own consumption, but is also transported and sold in large quantities.
Even when only Chu Bei was taken out before, the Chu Empire had no shortage of food, and even had a surplus.
Now that they have taken control of Wuchang Mansion, there is no shortage of food.
The last iron and copper materials, which are also important industrial raw materials for the Chu Empire to manufacture guns, have now been completely solved.
So far, except for two strategic materials, saltpeter and sulfur, which still need to be purchased from outside, the Dachu Empire is basically self-sufficient in other materials and even has surpluses.
At the same time, the Chu Empire also found ways to produce these two materials on its own.
For example, for saltpeter, local methods of making saltpeter have been implemented in almost the entire control area. The output in one place is small, but the sum of the little makes a lot!
Sulfur is a bit more troublesome. The Baoxiang Army has not found large-scale natural sulfur mines in Huguang for the time being. They can only refine sulfur through some small-scale pyrite mines. The output is small and the cost is high.
In the short term, the Chu Empire basically did not solve the saltpeter and sulfur problems on its own and could only rely on outsourcing!
For this reason, the Dachu Empire actually supported many commercial banks to engage in the procurement of these strategic materials, the most typical of which was Li Jiafeng and the Commercial Bank.
Moreover, what Fenghe Trading Company has been doing recently has become more and more outrageous. It has almost risen from confiscating families and exterminating clans to the level of killing nine clans.
What stands out is a man who is audacious and lawless!
