Zhu Cixiang's eyes lit up and he praised: "This is indeed a method that has the best of both worlds."
"Not bad, my mind is spinning pretty fast." Chongzhen chuckled and added, "But the prisoner sacrifice that my father wants is different from the previous prisoner sacrifices, and it is not limited to the palace."
As a time traveler, Chongzhen deeply understands how important propaganda work is.
This time, we finally captured more than a thousand slaves, especially Zu Zerun and Gao Di. These two traitors were a huge propaganda resource. How could we not drain them dry?
How can such two trump cards be killed at once?
Can the relationship between Jiannu and Han surrendered generals be differentiated?
It all fell on Zu Zerun and other rebellious ministers.
Ming Dynasty's finances also depend on them.
Not to mention solving all of it, but at least part of it.
After all, building a big cake doesn't take just three to five years.
While the father and son were talking, they had already changed into their crown robes. Chongzhen's crown robe was the one Wang Cheng'en had brought with him before the siege broke out.
I saw that Chongzhen's crown gown had several patches on it. The prince's crown gowns of Zhu Cihong and Zhu Cijiong were new and washed very clean, but they obviously didn't fit well.
Because this is last year's crown uniform, the two brothers have grown a lot in height over the past year and it doesn't fit them anymore.
Seeing this, Wang Chengen, who was serving Zhu Cihong and Zhu Cijiong to change their clothes, couldn't help wiping away tears.
"My dear friend, why are you crying?" Zhu Cijiong said, "The victory ceremony is about to begin, you should be happy."
"Yes, yes, His Highness is right, you should be happy." Wang Chengen quickly wiped away his tears and stepped forward to smooth out some obvious wrinkles on Chongzhen's crown.
Chongzhen's focus was not on these at all.
Chongzhen said: "How did you do what I asked you to do?"
"I've asked the kids to do it. Judging from the time, it should be done soon."
"Very good, I'm going to attend the Victory Ceremony soon. This is the first time I've attended the Victory Ceremony since I ascended the throne. I can't embarrass myself in public, so I have to be well prepared."
"Don't worry, Long Live Lord, everything will be done as per your request."
While he was talking, Sun Xiangxian ran into the cabin in a hurry.
"Long live my Lord." Sun Xiangxian knelt down and said, "The matter is done."
"Give it to me." Wang Chengen took the two lists from Sun Xiangxian, then turned around and handed them to Chongzhen.
Chongzhen took the list and saw that there was only a small amount of text on it, and then there were long strings of numbers. Of course, they were all numbers written in words, not Arabic numerals.
Arabic numerals were introduced to China during the Song Dynasty, but until the end of the Ming Dynasty, simple and easy-to-use Arabic numerals were not widely promoted.
When he first traveled through time, Chongzhen was a little uncomfortable with it.
Especially when looking at the account books, the strings of numbers written in Chinese characters often made him feel out of tune with this era, but he gradually got used to it as time went by.
Chongzhen's eyes fell on the first list.
The statistics of battle results and the narration of battle achievements are a very complicated and boring work. Sun Xiangxian also worked with dozens of young eunuchs for two days before finally calculating the statistics.
As a man of two generations, Chongzhen did not intend to imitate the original Chongzhen. He had to personally deal with everything without details.
As the emperor, what he has to do is to take charge of the overall situation. Specific affairs can be delegated to others. As for who to delegate to, you have to choose yourself.
There are many corrupt officials in the world.
There are a lot of bastards in the world.
But there are many capable officials in the world.
Just because a small number of corrupt officials cannot be beaten to death with a stick, we cannot think that all officials are like this just because a small number of capable officials are.
As an emperor, you need to know people well.
How to recognize people depends on the emperor himself.
Getting back to the topic, Chongzhen’s eyes fell on the first page of the list.
I saw it read: more than 9,000 pieces of armor of various kinds, more than 1,200 knives of various kinds, more than 3,000 large bows, more than 1,000 bird blunderbuss and Lumi blunderbuss, and three No. 1 Folang machine guns.
Ten guns, ninety sub-cannons, four hundred and fifty twenty-five kilograms of ammunition, one and two ounces of lead, twenty thousand kilograms each, and nine thousand kilograms of gunpowder.
There are ninety-eight carriages, eighty-six carriages, and more than 20,000 dan of grain.
Among these seizures, Folang machine guns, blunderbuss and gunpowder were good items, all of which were urgently needed by the Ming army.
However, the large bows, various knives and armors are a bit redundant. Especially the more than 3,000 large bows are of little use to the Ming army.
Because there are not that many archers to be found.
Training an archer is much more difficult than training a musketeer.
When he returned to Xuzhou, he asked Jin Xuan if he wanted these more than 3,000 large bows.
Therefore, Jiannu should feel very painful this time, because he lost more than 3,000 elite Eight Banners soldiers in one fell swoop, which was definitely a disaster-level loss for Jiannu.
In addition to equipment, there are also belongings.
Chongzhen would not force the handing over of the personal belongings found on the slaves.
However, the property found from the slave ships must be handed over and private storage is strictly prohibited.
Because of this incident, the naval officers and soldiers who participated in the war were very dissatisfied and complained quite a lot.
Don't worry about any criticism, because this is really a huge sum of money, with more than 400,000 taels of silver and jewelry, calligraphy and paintings worth more than 100,000 taels of silver.
If these more than 500,000 taels were embezzled by 500 navy officers and soldiers, what's the point?
This page is income, and Chongzhen turned the list to the next page, which is expenses.
When he saw the various items of expenditure, Chongzhen felt his head was buzzing and he was about to have a major hemorrhage.
Just over 3,000 real slaves were killed, and the reward was 50 taels each, which was 150,000 taels.
In addition, there were nearly 3,000 Han troops under the Eight Banners, and more than 5,000 soldiers were surrendered and coated. Whether these 8,000 people were killed in formation or captured alive, the rewards were all 5 taels each.
This item adds up to more than 40,000 taels of silver.
In addition, more than 2,000 Ming soldiers were killed in this battle, including more than 200 Yiding. Although the results of chasing Jiannu were large enough, the cost was not small.
This pension is more than 110,000 taels.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! That’s all, it’s already early July.
It's July, and it's soon time for the mid-month payment period.
Moreover, there was another battle in July, and this time we had to pay three times the war pay!
Only now did Chongzhen finally understand that sudden soldiers were really expensive and he really couldn't afford them!
Not counting the thousand barbarians and the 500 naval troops who came to Xia Town, Huang Degong had nearly 50,000 frontier troops in ten towns, which required 300,000 taels of silver in war pay at one time.
The total of these items is already 600,000 taels of silver.
Fortunately, Jiannu sent more than 500,000 taels all the way south.
Otherwise, this wave of rewards and military pay would directly bankrupt Chongzhen.
But even so, Chongzhen's small treasury may not last a few months.
After closing the list, Chongzhen turned to Wang Chengen and asked, "Wang Daban, how much money do I have left in my internal funds?"
Wang Chengen replied without thinking: "The confiscated income from Liu Zeqing and Liu Liangzuo towns has a balance of more than 200,000 taels, and the grain grains released from Xuzhou by the Ministry of Revenue have a discounted balance of more than 600,000 taels."
Chongzhen frowned and said: "In other words, there are 800,000 taels left?"
Wang Chengen said: "In addition to the 500,000 taels contributed by the slaves, the total is 1.3 million taels."
"I'm afraid 1.3 million taels of silver won't last long." Chongzhen sighed after hearing this, "It seems I have to go back to Nanjing."
1.3 million taels of silver sounds like a huge number, and in fact it is indeed a huge number, but it really costs nothing. Huang Degong's ten soldiers will only spend 600,000 taels this month!
There are also ten town soldiers in Xuzhou and eight town soldiers in Pizhou. These 90,000 people are all recruited soldiers.
There are also refugees in Xuzhou’s farming communities, although they don’t need to be paid, but they still have to be fed.
When he thought of this, Chongzhen suddenly felt overwhelmed. They said that a cannon fired can bring thousands of taels of gold. He didn't believe it before, but now he believes it. This war is really expensive.
This is just a partial force from Jian Nu!
When the main force of slave building comes next time, an army of hundreds of thousands, what will we do?
If you win a battle, you will be given a reward and you will be bankrupted. If you lose, you will be given a pension and you will be bankrupted in Chongzhen.
It seems that recruiting troops can only be used as a temporary measure. After winning the battle of Xia Town, Chongzhen suddenly felt that recruiting troops was still worth saving and might be put to great use.
But now, Chongzhen directly gave up this idea.
Recruiting troops in the twenty-eight towns can only be used as a temporary measure.
Because the finances cannot afford it, even mountains of gold and silver cannot bear it.
But fortunately, Jiannu's first wave of attacks has been neutralized.
And the result was much better than Chongzhen expected. The Ming army not only defended the Xia Town defense line, but even won an unprecedented victory.
As for Jiannu's second wave of attacks, it will definitely not come so quickly.
It is not that easy for Dorgon to twist the Eight Banners into Manchuria. At least he must first bring Shunzhi who stayed in Shengjing and hundreds of thousands of slave-building children and slaves into the pass.
It is already early July, and the autumn grain harvest is about to begin.
Therefore, the Jiannu slaves outside the customs will definitely wait until after the autumn harvest to enter the customs.
This means that the establishment of slaves will not be possible to use large-scale military force outside the country until October at the earliest. This time point is basically the same as in history.
So he still has three months.
Three months is not a long time, but it is not a short time either.
Enough for him to do something, at least to alleviate the financial crisis first.
Zhu Cijiong asked: "Is it for your father to go back to Nanjing to raise money?"
"Yes, raise the pay." Chongzhen said helplessly, "You have also seen that the reward plus military pay will cost 600,000 taels for the border troops in the ten towns of Xia Town!"
Sun Xiangxian plucked up the courage and said, "Long live my Lord, can I say a few words?"
"You?" Chongzhen looked at Sun Xiangxian with a half-smile, "What do you want to say?"
Sun Xiangxian felt a little regretful, but the words had already been spoken, so he could only bite the bullet and said: "As the old saying goes, if you give more to the border troops, it may not be a good thing to reward the border troops too much."
"Eunuch Sun, are you teaching me how to do things? Om?"
Chongzhen smiled more and more kindly, but his tone became cold.
"Long live the Lord." Sun Xiangxian was so frightened that he knelt down with a thud.
"Drag him out." Chongzhen snorted coldly, "Eighty sticks!"
