"Coats made of wool are very popular in the army. This time, 10,000 woolen coats have been added to the supplies allocated to Shouchun to ensure that the grassroots military officers of the Xuanwu Army and the Xiaosheng Army can receive them in early spring.
I got one piece..."
After the strategy for crossing the Huaihe River was finalized, in addition to not relaxing at all for the hundreds of thousands of captive soldiers gathered on the north bank, matters such as the awarding of military merit, the organization of the armies, and the replacement of ordnance and equipment also became extremely complicated.
Shi Zhen, Xu Wuqi, Zhou Jing, Guo Junpan and others need to stay in Biyang to sit in charge of the system and preside over daily military and administrative affairs; Xu Wujiang returned to Nancai this winter and continued to advance the construction of Jingbei including the Jingjiang Changdi.
Industrial affairs in the four counties and Nancai County; Liu Shiwang temporarily went to Guangzhou to preside over the military merit land granting and resettlement work for the dependents of Jingsheng Army; Xu Huai recommended Pan Chenghu to Xiangyang Prefecture, who would be familiar with military affairs and better at handling complex government affairs.
Cheng Lunying was replaced and transferred to the Recruitment Department to serve as a consultant and military officer. Together with Han Gui, Zhang Xiongshan, Fan Yong and others, he stayed with him to take charge of the preparations for the Huaihe River crossing.
The western foothills of Qionglai Mountain were not peaceful. The Tubo tribes had never given up the idea of joining forces to drive out the remaining Khitan tribes. It was impossible for the Yan tribe's reinforcements to stay in the Central Plains for a long time to participate in the war.
After the Battle of Pikou, Xiao Yanhan and his nephew Xiao Chunyu led a Yan tribe's reinforcement cavalry to escort 3,000 color-eyed prisoners up the river back to Dajianlu, leaving four in the end.
The Qianyan tribe's reinforcement cavalry (total total) was led by three generals: Sa Luhe, Wu Sanrong, and Xiao Xuan, and were directly incorporated into the selected vanguard army to participate in the subsequent Northern Expedition.
Therefore, the Selected Front Army was organized into the left and right towns. The left town was commanded by Yin Peng and Xiao Xun as chief and deputy commanders. It was mainly stationed in Caizhou to assist Chen Zixiao in resisting the enemy forces in the west of Beijing that were peeping from the south of Chen and Lizhou. The right town was composed of
Shi Hu, Sun Yanguan, and Wu Sanrong were the chief and deputy commanders. As the personal guards of the envoys, they mainly accompanied Xu Huai and were stationed in Shouchun.
In addition to selecting the front army in Youzhen, the battle across Huaihe River was also determined to be dominated by three infantry units: Jingsheng Army, Xuanwu Army, and Xiaosheng Army. The number of soldiers and horses participating in the battle was reduced from the previous 80,000 to
About 60,000.
In terms of the allocation of money and food for the battle across the Huaihe River, Jiangdong, Jiangxi, Jingnan, Jingbei, and Guangxi made moderate reductions. It was designated as 15 million yuan of money and food every year. It was agreed that in addition to copper coins and gold and silver precious metal payments,
, about two-thirds are deducted from basic materials such as cotton and linen, grain, livestock, brown wool, tung oil, and wood.
In addition to bearing the huge military and political expenditures under its jurisdiction, Jingxiang also promised to bear an additional 5 million yuan of military expenditures for the Huaihe River crossing each year, but this was mainly in the form of armor, ordnance, clothing, quilts, boats and other combat supplies.
Make a conversion.
Xu Huai made such a concession because, on the one hand, Jiangdong and the other five groups had been under great financial pressure since the Second Huainan Battle.
In addition to sharing the direct military expenses for the battle, a considerable part of the expenses of participating in the Qinwang's troops, including subsequent casualty pensions, etc., are borne by the various road supervisors.
All road supervisors are currently facing a serious situation of being unable to make ends meet, and it is impossible for ordinary people to bear unlimited tax increases.
On the other hand, when Beijing and Xiangyang assume more responsibilities, they also use it to expand the scale of external material exports and further stimulate internal industrial and mining production.
It is also because Jingxiang mainly uses materials to convert military resources for apportionment, and the actual payment is much lower than the verbal promise, so it will not put too much pressure on Jingxiang.
In Jianghuai and other places, due to the displacement of millions of people in Huaixi, the price of rice has once again risen to as high as sixty-seven guan per stone. However, Beijing and Xiangzhou have continued to build large-scale dams, dredges, and dig ditches and canals for several years. The number of fields has increased year after year, and the yield per mu of original cultivated land has also increased year by year. This year alone, the grain storage department and the prefectural governments have added as much as
1.2 million stones.
This part of the newly added grain reserves is only converted to 1.5 million guan in the rent and tax accounts of the Jingxiang Production Department. However, if grain is allocated from Jingxiang to Huaihe for the battle across the Huaihe River, the calculation will be based on the calculations of the Jingnan and Jingbei provinces. Under the same standard, if the allocation of 500,000 shi of grain is equivalent to the 2 million shi of military resources.
The price difference for the clothing, quilts, and boats allocated by Beijing and Xiang was not as large as that of food, but it was still more than twice as big; the price difference for soldiers, armor, and ordnance was even more exaggerated.
And because the money and food shared by various roads for military resources are mainly reflected in physical objects such as grain, livestock, wood, cotton, linen, tung oil, etc., a considerable part of the raw materials, such as cotton, linen, wood, livestock, etc., will be transferred to Beijing and Xiangzhou. After being processed into cotton cloth, boats, armor, war equipment and other finished products in Beijing and Xiangzhou, they are transferred to the Recruitment Department. There will also be a huge price difference in the final conversion.
After a total calculation, Beijing and Xiangxiang promised to share 5 million guan of military resources every year, and the actual cost may be about 1 million guan.
At this point, others cannot find fault with Jingxiang. After all, the price of purchasing these combat materials from other places is far higher than the converted price allocated by Jingxiang.
At present, the wool textiles produced in Beijing and Xiangzhou are not yet mature. Whether they are woven blankets or woolen jackets woven to keep out the cold, the cost is higher than that of traditional clothing. Lifengtang sells woolen textiles through warehouses set up in various places. It can only attract small and medium-sized landowners and wealthy urban households to try and buy them. Sales volume is very limited.
However, woven blankets and cold-weather jackets are extremely popular in the military because of their excellent cold and moisture resistance, softness and lightness.
At present, woolen textiles such as woven blankets produced in Beijing and Xiangzhou are mainly supplied to the military.
Last year, Beijing and Xiangzhou only consumed 3,000 dans of wool. This year, they will increase exports of wool textiles to Zhujun. It is expected that the consumption of wool will increase to 5,000 to 6,000 dans.
This number may seem small, but coupled with the export of more than a thousand war horses by the remnants of the Khitan to the inland every year, it can almost offset the annual cost of importing 30,000 to 40,000 shi of grain, tea, iron, salt and other materials to Dajianlu through the Qionglai Mountain Road.
Although four and a half million yuan of money and grain were invested in opening up the Qionglai Mountain Road, six to seven thousand young men and women were ultimately left in the Qionglai Mountains and at the western foot. This cost was so high that one could not expect to recover the money for a while, but in the future, through wool and horses, The export of goods can maintain the balance of material trade on both sides of Qionglai Mountain, which is of great significance to maintaining and widening the Qionglai Mountain Road; not to mention that it can also support the subsequent expansion of the Tubo Highlands.
Although Cheng Lunying, as the magistrate of Biyang County, had contact with people in Chushan during the Tongbai Mountain Bandit Rebellion, he joined the army as a soldier of Nanyang Prefecture and was responsible for coordinating the Nanyang Prefecture army led by Kong Zhou, Liu Wugong and other generals to participate in the Rucai garrison.
Only after he became the prefect of Xiangyang did he have a truly in-depth understanding of Jingxiang (Chushan).
From this, he realized that the industrial, mining, military and political system that Xu Huai had created over the years had a deep foundation, and it was only on this basis that he could carry out various strategies with ease.
Cheng Lunying came to Xu Huai to sign a new batch of allocated materials list. Han Gui was talking to Xu Huai about Kong Changyu's alliance with Jiangdong, Jiangxi and Guangxi transport envoys to submit a letter requesting to withhold the salt and tea tax to make up for the insufficient expenditure of the road supervisory department.
Things.
Since Jingxiang and Xiangxiang promised to bear an additional 5 million guan of military expenditure every year, the other five supervisors had no reason to refuse to share the annual expenditure of 15 million guan for the crossing of the Huaihe River. However, they had to come up with this amount every year.
For the Fifth Road Supervisor, the pressure is still too much.
Now Kong Changyu and others are thinking of retaining the salt and tea tax to make up for the shortfall in the supervisor's expenditure, or to use it to pay for the military resources for the battle across the Huaihe River.
This comes first
Example.
For example, Jingxiang, Xiqin, and Dongchuan had already intercepted the salt and tea tax to make up for their respective military shortages.
At this time, Jingbei took the lead and proposed that the salt and tea taxes generated by Jingbei and other roads should be included in the calculation of military expenditures for the Huaihe River crossing, instead of additional escorts and delivery to the center. The reason was obviously very good.
On this point, Ge Boyi, who was the pacifier of Jinghu South Road, was unable to object and even remained silent, which caused him to be greatly criticized within the Jinghu South Road Supervision Department.
Whether the salt and tea tax can be intercepted means that the Jinghu South Road can actually reduce the share of military resources for the Huaihe River crossing by hundreds of dollars every year.
After experiencing the Dongjing Bandit Rebellion, the local government did not dare to exploit the people at the bottom too harshly. If they can actually reduce the burden of military expenditures by millions of dollars every year, this is by no means a small amount.
If Ge Boyi dared to stand up and sing the opposite tune at this time, wouldn't he be afraid of a wave of "rebellion" within Jinghu South Road?
Of course, Kong Changyu and others openly wrote to the court to ask for permission, but through Han Guiusu and Xu Huai, they actually wanted to win Xu Huai's support.
As long as Xu Huai approves, they can directly withhold the salt and tea tax.
"What do you think?" After Xiao Yanhan left, Xu Huai did not show much diligence in military and political affairs. He kept Han Gui and others by his side, and
Cheng Lunying was transferred here to save trouble.
Regarding the tax collection of salt and tea from the Five Routes, some people in the production department thought of squeezing the Five Routes Supervisors and forcing the various Supervisors to clear their fields to expand fiscal and tax revenue. Others hoped that at the critical moment of preparing for the Huaihe River crossing, it was necessary to give the Five Routes Supervisors
The Secretary breathed a sigh of relief, and Jingxiang also tried his best to seize the support of the Fifth Road Supervisor.
Seeing Xu Huai looking towards him, Cheng Lunying said: "It is not advisable to squeeze too much of the wealth of the Five Roads for the time being. We need to take a breath. However, after the salt and tea tax is put under the control of the local supervisors and has become a routine, it will be difficult to collect it again in the future."
, but it would be better to put it in the Fifth Road Envoy Department for unified planning..."
"Cheng Langjun's proposal is very good. Let the Wuludu Branch make unified planning, which can be regarded as the best of both worlds." Han Gui said.
The Wuludu Branch Office is nominally one of the central ministries. It is more convenient to divide this part of the money and grain from the Central Salt and Iron Envoy Department and integrate it into the Wuludu Branch Department for overall planning.
In addition, the Five-Road Envoy Department is nominally headed by Wei Chujun, but in the final analysis it still serves the Huaihuai War. In Han Gui's view, Jingxiang's next step is to kick Wei Chujun away, and Jingxiang will directly control this central force.
Organization, at this time, more financial power will be concentrated in the Wuludu Branch, which will also save a lot of money in the future.
Of course, this can indeed greatly alleviate the current financial pressure on the Supervisory Office of the Five Roads. It is almost equivalent to a share of Beijing and Xiangzhou, and further reduces the annual financial and food sharing of the Five Roads by about 4 million yuan.
"Then you go to Wei Chujun to discuss it. It would be most appropriate for him to write a letter asking for information," Xu Huai said.
Cheng Lunying couldn't help but smile bitterly. She wanted to discuss with Wei Chujun and ask him to agree to submit a memorial. It would be more appropriate to directly send a soldier to put a knife on his neck and force him to write this memorial.
Han Gui thought of something, but did not refuse. He frowned slightly and said, "I will go to Wei Chujun to discuss it now..."
After Han Gui left, Cheng Lunying continued to discuss the material allocation with Xu Huai, and it didn't take long before Han Gui came back with a smile on his face.
Cheng Lunying asked in surprise: "Wei Chujun agreed so easily?"
