For more than half a year, the emperor received memorials from the southern coast almost every day, and there were more than one and more than one person sending them to him.
In other words, although he was in Jiankang, his eyes were always on the coast and on the anti-Japanese army.
However, what was written in the report was just words after all. Now that Shen Yi, the real person in charge, was in front of him, His Majesty the Emperor naturally wanted to ask clearly.
After all, this is a "big project" since he ascended the throne, and it is also the first step in his future career progress. As an emperor, of course he is extremely concerned about it.
Let's put it this way, compared to the cause of fighting the Japanese army, the fact that the queen gave birth to a princess is not even worth mentioning.
Shen Yi cleared his throat and was about to give an overview of the situation of the anti-Japanese army. Before he could speak, His Majesty the Emperor pointed to the chair behind him and said, "Sit down and answer."
Shen Yi sat down honestly, and then spent half an hour briefly describing the development process of the anti-Japanese army in the past six months. After finishing speaking, Shen Yi paused and continued: "Your Majesty, the Japanese pirates are after all The reason why bandits were able to wreak havoc along the coast in the past few years and even defeat local government troops head-on was mainly because of the local guards..."
At this point, Shen Yi paused for a moment. After all, he did not say the word "terrible", but said euphemistically: "It is mainly because the local defense forces are not able to cope with it. Once a large-scale army is successfully formed along the coast, , it is naturally not difficult to curb the Japanese pirates. When the warships of Wenzhou Prefecture are launched next year, the anti-Japanese army will be able to go to sea to clean up the Japanese pirates on the sea. However, according to the smoothest progress, it will take two or three people at the fastest to clear out the Japanese pirates on the sea. It will take years to..."
"As for training the anti-Japanese army into a truly powerful army."
Shen Yi slowly exhaled a breath: "It may take longer."
There is a huge gap between the professional army and local bandits. When Qi Jiguang fought against the Japanese, he could even achieve zero casualties and wipe out thousands of enemies. However, the anti-Japanese army formed by Shen Yi was not as strong as the Qi family army. However, it is no longer difficult to clean up Japanese pirates on land.
But the anti-Japanese army still has a long way to go before it can become a strong and invincible army.
When the emperor heard this, he lowered his head and thought for a while, and then asked: "Shen Qing means that the current anti-Japanese army is not a strong army."
Shen Yi shook his head slightly and said with a wry smile: "Your Majesty, it has only taken more than half a year since the establishment of the Anti-Japanese Army. Most of the soldiers have not even been trained for half a year. The level of training is limited, not to mention..."
Shen Yi took a deep breath and said: "What's more, even if the anti-Japanese army is composed of well-trained elites, there are only 5,000 people, and they cannot be said to be powerful."
His Majesty the Emperor's eyes flashed. He looked at Shen Yi and said slowly: "What Shen Qing means is that five thousand people are too few and we need to continue to recruit and expand troops?"
Shen Yi slowly shook his head and said: "Back to Your Majesty, whether to expand the anti-Japanese army or not is a matter for Your Majesty and several officials from the Ministry of War. I dare not comment, but I have a situation that I must explain to Your Majesty..."
He raised his head and glanced at the emperor, and whispered: "If the anti-Japanese army is expanding, it does not need to be expanded into a capital, even if the number of people is doubled, the money that the prince of Jin seized along the coast will not be used for long..."
"In fact, even if we keep the current five thousand people stationary and sit still, we will only be able to support it for two or three years at most..."
Most of the merchants on the coast who had access to the Japanese were wealthy people with a net worth of millions. For example, the richest man in Taizhou, Wang Chengwang, had a net worth well over one million. However, only a small part of the millions of net worth was in cash.
Even if Du Huai and other eunuchs sent out by the palace can sell the real estate into cash without any loss, the number of one million may seem like a lot, but if it is placed in a collective with tens of thousands of people, it is not very impressive.
.
What's even worse is that the money gained from confiscating houses is not only responsible for the food and salary expenses of the anti-Japanese army, but also the purchase of firearm materials, shipbuilding wood, and the expenses of the craftsmen. In addition, Du Huai and the eunuchs will inevitably have to
Which hands up and down...
Li Mu has already traced Guangdong.
After searching through Guangdong, there was no place left to search. In Guangxi, which was further along the coast, there were no Japanese pirates at all, so the charge of collaborating with Japanese was out of the question.
To put it bluntly, there is a shortage of money, but money can be recycled continuously.
The money obtained from confiscating houses was only enough to build up the anti-Japanese army, but if you wanted to maintain the anti-Japanese army, the imperial court had to continuously provide blood transfusions to the anti-Japanese army.
Hearing Shen Yi's words, the emperor frowned more and more.
Seeing that Shen Yi wanted to continue talking, the emperor rubbed his temples with his hands and said in a muffled voice: "Okay, okay, don't say any more, I have a headache from hearing this."
The establishment of the coastal defense force was initiated by the emperor himself. Many ministers in the court, including Zhao Changping, the Minister of Household Affairs, did not agree with this matter.
Since the civil servants who control the government do not agree, it will be extremely difficult to take money out of their pockets. Moreover, this year the Ministry of Revenue also gave Northern Qi coins, and last year the Huaihe Navy almost fought with Northern Qi.
During the war in 2016, the Ministry of Revenue may not have much spare money, let alone the huge expenditure of supporting an army for no reason.
The emperor refused to speak, so Shen Yi honestly stopped talking.
The emperor sat in his seat, scratched his head first, then took a deep breath, looked up at Shen Yi, and said in a deep voice: "Shen Qing, you also said that it takes a lot of money to form an army. This money
We have to find a way to get it out of the treasury. Fortunately, this anti-Japanese army has achieved quite a lot now. At the meeting in two days, you can speak more beautifully and try to..."
His Majesty the Emperor said in a deep tone: "Try to persuade your uncle so that he can happily pay for the anti-Japanese army in the future."
As an emperor, he felt somewhat cowardly when he said these words.
But under the current system, the power of his emperor is indeed limited. On the one hand, the civil servants in the court are powerful, and on the other hand, because...
The Queen Mother is still here.
With the Queen Mother here, these civil servants would have a place to complain.
This forces His Majesty the Emperor to be a qualified and rule-abiding emperor. He cannot do whatever he wants, let alone act arbitrarily.
To put it more bluntly, the emperor must also follow the court's procedures.
Shen Yi was silent for a while, shook his head slightly and said: "Your Majesty, I'm afraid it's difficult. For the princes in the court, as long as there are no Japanese pirates on land, the anti-Japanese army can be disbanded. As for whether there are Japanese pirates on the sea, will the anti-Japanese army be able to disband?" Become a strong army..."
"No one will care."
Hearing this, the little emperor waved his hand impatiently: "I don't like to hear this, don't say it anymore."
He waved his hand to Shen Yi irritably: "Okay, that's it for today, you can go back."
Shen Yi nodded respectfully, saluted, and was about to turn around and leave when he was suddenly stopped by His Majesty the Emperor.
I saw the emperor on the throne walking slowly in front of Shen Yi. He looked at Shen Yi up and down, and suddenly laughed: "I almost forgot, you Shen Qi is an expert at making money. You came from Jiangdu to Jianyi two years ago. Kang, I have been making money all the time, even when I joined the Dijing Newspaper Company and became a secretary, I still made a lot of money using the Diji Newspaper Company."
As he said that, the emperor looked at Shen Yi with a smile.
"Think about it. Can you get me the money to support the anti-Japanese army?"
When Shen Yi was in Jiangdu, he started to do business with Xu Fu and others. Later, after taking them to Jiankang, he went from a food stall to Huangshizhai, and then later sold the advertisements in the newspaper. He did make a lot of money.
A real money-making expert.
And His Majesty the Emperor has sent his internal guards to check all of this, so he naturally knows it well.
Mr. Shen rolled his eyes.
He really has a trick he can try.
I just don’t know whether His Majesty the Emperor agrees...