Wei Kun heard Jia Ke's order and said hurriedly: "Master, Tang Kuai has released all his spies. The Tatars can't escape our eyes even if they have the slightest trouble."
Jia Ke was still not very relieved and asked Li Deshan next to him: "What news did your secret guard get? Didn't I become blind?"
After hearing this, Li Deshan hurriedly said to Jia Ke: "Master, it's not that the slave didn't get the news, but the slave's people mainly monitor the country. There are some things that are beyond the reach of foreign countries. If the master needs it, I will arrange the manpower. I will never do anything in the future."
Nothing like this will happen again.”
Jia Ke thought for a while and said: "That's it, send some people to the south and north to try to find out as much information as possible, even the prices of those goods."
Li Deshan immediately kept expressing his position to Jia Ke, "Master, I am not exaggerating to you. As long as it is a slave who handles this matter, I will know if there is any trouble within a year."
Jia Ke felt relieved when he heard this. It was not like what the court had done before. The Tatars had all come to the door and they were on the defensive.
This time when Jia Ke takes charge of the world, he must do so: I will not move before the enemy moves, and I will move first after the enemy moves.
"Send someone to contact the Eight Banners of the Manchu tribe and ask them to be prepared and ready for my orders at any time. Once my generals are dismissed, they will immediately gather all their armored men to join me."
Jia Ke thought that this time it was time for the Manchu Eight Banners to show their faces. In the past, Jia Ke was taboo about the emperor's pressure, so the Manchu Eight Banners were never exposed. Now they finally no longer need these taboos.
According to Jia Ke's estimation, the current Manchu Eight Banners also have strong men and horses. If the Eight Banners tribes were dispatched together, there would be at least 150,000 to 60,000 cavalry.
When the time comes, together with the elite cavalry and infantry from the nine sides, he will lead 500,000 troops north to sweep the grasslands, so that Alsileng Khan can also taste what it feels like to be beaten to the doorstep of his home.
After Wei Kun went down, Jia Ke thought over his thoughts completely. He felt that there was no oversight, so he sent an order to the five military ministers and Peng Bi, the Minister of War, to come to his lobby immediately for a meeting.
The five military ministers arrived very quickly because they had been working in front of the Prime Minister's Office.
The five people came to the lobby and saluted Jia Ke first. Sun Yan, as the foreman, was the first to ask: "Is there something urgent, my lord? He summoned us in such a hurry."
"Wait a moment, wait until the Minister of War arrives and we can talk together, otherwise we will have to explain again."
So these five military and aircraft ministers could only stand below and wait for a while, and at the same time they began to think about it in their minds.
The Prime Minister is waiting for the Secretary of the Ministry of War. It seems that this time the matter has something to do with the army. Could there be another war?
Except for Fan Kang, none of them have experienced war. Now they are all a little panicked and don't know where the trouble is in the world.
Without even a stick of incense, Peng Bi, Minister of the Ministry of War, rushed over. He was still out of breath when he arrived at the lobby. It seemed that he had jogged over without stopping along the way.
Peng Bi came to the lobby to calm down, and then handed over to Jia Ke and apologized, "I came down late, please forgive me, my lord."
Jia Ke did not blame him, but just asked him to return to the squad, then stood up and said: "I just got the news from the north that Alsileng Khan has returned to the grassland from the Western Regions. What do you think about this matter?
?”
Although Sun Yan is the Minister of Military and Aircraft, he is really not good at marching and fighting. However, he can still make some general remarks, "I see, the Tatars have been fighting frequently in recent years. I think it should be
You need to rest for a few years to regain your strength, otherwise, if you continue to fight with our country, I am afraid it will be time to exterminate the entire clan."
The others nodded in agreement after hearing this. They did not think that the Tatars were still capable of continuing to invade the south.
Only Fan Kang shook his head when he heard their optimistic views.
Little did he know that Fan Kang's performance was noticed by Jia Ke, "Fan Kang, don't shake your head there. If you have anything to say, please stand up and say it."
When Fan Kang saw that Jia Ke had discovered it, he could only stand up and said: "According to my inference, Alsileng Khan will definitely go south this autumn."
"Oh, why?"
"My lord, Arsleng Khan is also a hero, and he has a very high self-esteem, but he has been defeated by the lord many times. He must not be angry in his heart. This time Arsleng Khan pacified the Western Region and conquered dozens of countries.
The morale of the soldiers under his command must be high, and they have obtained many slaves and mercenaries from the Western Regions. Presumably Alslen Khan thinks that he can fight his lord now. With his character, he must not be able to wait to regain his strength. He will definitely fight with him this year.
My lord, let’s fight.”
Jia Ke nodded after hearing this. Fan Kang was worthy of being his chief strategist. He analyzed the matter clearly and logically, and it was exactly what he thought.
After listening to Fan Kang's words, several other military ministers began to be shaken by what he said.
Jia Ke then asked Peng Bi, Minister of War, "Can our food and grass support hundreds of thousands of soldiers fighting?"
Peng Bi thought for a moment and thought about it carefully before saying: "My lord, we have a bumper harvest across the country this year. I think the harvested food should be enough, but the Ministry of Revenue still needs to do a careful calculation."
Jia Ke pondered for a moment, and then said directly to Sun Yan: "Your Military Aircraft Department will now give an order to the Ministry of Household Affairs to raise food and grass from now on. By autumn, I will be able to stock up on food for 500,000 soldiers to fight for half a year."
After hearing this, Sun Yan frowned a little, but still said resolutely: "My lord, there is no problem with the food and grass matter. I can raise food for your lord even by robbing."
After listening to this, Jia Ke smiled and said: "It's not as good as talking about whether to rob or not. If the court is in trouble, there is no way to solve it."
Sun Yan didn't think there was any way to raise so much food without straining his muscles and bones, but now that Jia Ke had said it, he had to ask: "Lord, is it possible that something has been accomplished?"
Jia Ke smiled and nodded, then stood up and walked between them and said: "Although the court has some difficulties, the wealthy people among the people are very rich. If they contribute, let alone the food and fodder for the 500,000 army, it will be one hundred
It is easy to raise food and fodder for an army of 10,000 to 2 million people."
Tian Ye, the military minister who had just returned from the south, couldn't believe what Jia Ke said. He had seen the stinginess of these rich men in the south, and it was simply impossible to expect them to provide so much food.
So Tian Ye asked in disbelief: "What good plan does the Prime Minister have?"
"It's not a smart idea. This time I went north and won't leave after seizing the land. With so much fertile land stretching as far as the eye can see, there's no way I can sell it for some money."
After listening to Jia Ke's words, Sun Yan and others suddenly realized that what these wealthy locals care about most is land. As long as they exchange land for food with them, are they afraid that they will not agree?
Jia Ke actually had this idea for a long time. He wanted to nationalize as much land as possible in the interior of the Central Plains, and then rent it to the landless commoners, and then plunder as much land as possible from the countries surrounding the Central Plains, and then sell it to these wealthy locals.
, as for their lack of manpower for farming, they would not simply capture all the natives and treat them as slaves.
This time Jia Ke went north and wanted to do a pilot project in the north first to see if it could succeed. If it succeeded, then the land in the south that was used three times a year would naturally be sold at a high price, and there was no shortage of cultivated land there because of the dense population.
people.
Now that Sun Yan was relieved, they naturally knew that there would be no problem in raising food and grass this time. Now that they were relaxed, they began to think about how to defeat the Tatars. Otherwise, they would have all kinds of clever tricks, and in the end they would
It is impossible to appease these wealthy landlords who contributed money.
Sun Yan thought for a moment, and since he had decided to sell the land captured during the northern victory, there had to be a price, "Lord, at what price will the land in the north be sold?"
Jia Ke thought for a moment and was a little undecided. He was also afraid of losing money on this transaction.
"Fan Kang, what do you think?"
Fan Kang rolled his eyes when Jia Ke asked him again, but he still had to answer, "My lord, the land in the Central Plains is between eighty taels and twelve taels now. The land we captured in the north should not have been cultivated yet."
If it is, then it can only be sold as waste land. In this case, the price in the Central Plains is only four or five taels."
Fan Kang stopped talking after saying this. This left room for Jia Ke to express himself. As a subordinate, could he really compare himself to his master?
Jia Ke nodded after listening to Fan Kang's introduction, "It seems that if we sell at a high price, those local rich people will not obediently pay for the food."
After Jia Ke said this, he thought about it carefully. He wanted to give these rich locals a taste of the sweetness, so the land could not be sold at too high a price, so that they could do their best to provide food and money.
And if there is a war in the future, they will definitely take an active part in it.
"The way I see it, the land in the north will be sold for 150 kilograms of grain per acre. What do you think?"
The following military ministers looked at each other, and then nodded. The price offered by Jia Ke was already extremely low. I think the wealthy locals would definitely flock here.
Jia Ke saw that everyone had nodded in agreement, so he just like Sun Yan ordered: "Leave this matter to the Military Aircraft Department. You arrange to reveal the information to the rich locals, collect the grains in a unified way, and issue a receipt to them."
.”
After listening to Jia Ke's instructions, Sun Yan immediately said: "Lord, we must have a limit, otherwise these rich people must have gone crazy when they heard about such cheap land. How could we have so much land to sell to them."
Jia Ke thought about it for a while. The outcome of this trip to the north was unpredictable. Although Jia Ke could seize some land as expected, it would be a drop in the bucket if he wanted to satisfy the appetites of the rich people in the world.
"Then sell 5 million acres of land to test the waters first. Otherwise, if there is not so much land to hand over, the court will be embarrassed."