I want to be emperor

Chapter 253 It's Not Easy

It was October 26th in the first year of Chu Chengshun and the eighth year of Ming Chongzhen.

Wuchang City.

At this time, Wuchang City has begun to gradually restore people's livelihood. Although there are still many rural protection soldiers patrolling the streets, shops along the street, especially grain stores and other shops related to people's livelihood, have opened for business one after another.

The people began to walk out of their homes cautiously, and came to the streets that still had a lot of traces of war.

Although Wuchang is still Wuchang, these streets are still the original streets, but there are additional traces of war, bloodstains that have not been washed on the ground, and soldiers of the Township Protection Army patrolling the streets with knives and guns.

None of them announced to the people that Wuchang City had just gone through a major war and had changed owners.

The new owner of this city is the Great Chu Empire, Luo Zhixue.

In the Great Chu Palace, Luo Zhixue was holding a meeting with senior civil and military officials from the Ministry of Finance, Taxation, Military Affairs, Staff, and Logistics.

The theme of today's meeting is relatively simple, that is, to initially report back the series of gains after the army went south and conquered the entire territory of Wuchang Prefecture.

Major General Wei Kaifu, the head of the Military and Political Department of the military, took the lead in reporting a series of matters related to prisoners of war.

"Since our army crossed the south of the Yangtze River, up to now, we have accumulatively accepted surrendered soldiers. A total of more than 8000 soldiers have been captured and surrendered. However, the overall quality of the more than [-] surrendered soldiers is worrying, far inferior to those in the Zhongxiang Battle. The quality of troop drop."

"Most of them are ordinary local guard soldiers and temporary recruits of county brave civilians. A considerable number of them have not received professional military training."

"Only some soldiers and personal soldiers have undergone professional military training, and the total number is about 4000."

"For this group of prisoners of war, our military and political department is expected to be able to select about 1 garrison soldiers after selection."

"At present, according to His Majesty's instructions, the new garrison soldiers on the western front have been assigned to the eighth garrison division, and some of the garrison soldiers on the central front line have been added to the sixth garrison division, and some have been added to the seventh garrison division."

At this time, Xu Zhixian, the head of the staff department, said: "After this replenishment, the sixth garrison division will resume its full strength, the eighth garrison division is expected to have [-] troops, and the seventh garrison division is expected to have [-] troops. Thousands of troops."

"After a period of training, the seventh and eighth garrison divisions will be able to undertake initial combat missions."

"Let the logistics department take care of the seizure of various military supplies and trophies!"

Immediately, Major General Yu Xiujie, the head of the logistics department, said: "Your Majesty, since our army crossed the south of the Yangtze River, we have seized about [-] pieces of cold weapons such as knives, spears, and bows, and another [-] pieces of armor. , but there are only [-] pieces of armor that meet the quality standards of our army."

"In addition, 26 short robes weighing more than 200 catties and more than [-] light and short cannons weighing less than [-] catties were seized!"

"At present, the above-mentioned captured cold weapons and old guns have been selected and can be used to supplement the Sixth Garrison Division, and install the Seventh Garrison Division and the Eighth Garrison Division."

"The remaining incomplete and inferior weapons that do not meet the standards used by our army have been delivered to the Ministry of Finance and used as raw materials."

"We also seized 870 three mules and horses for military use, and 120 six horses for cavalry use. The above-mentioned horses were also added to the above-mentioned three garrison divisions!"

"In terms of grain and grass, our army has seized a lot, especially the grain and grass seized in Wuchang City is enough for one of my main divisions to use for half a year!"

"In addition, a batch of tents, carriages and other military supplies were seized."

"In the end, we also captured 26 large and small warships, and all of them have been replenished into the Yangtze River Fleet."

"The above-mentioned types of seizures are all military supplies, and they do not cover confiscated materials that can be used for military supplies!"

The military's harvest is relatively simple, basically three categories: weapons, food, mules and horses, plus some miscellaneous things. These materials all have a common feature, that is, the direct capture of the army, and at the same time can directly Supplementary military use.

In fact, the military also transferred some of the seized materials, such as cloth, gold and silver, to the Ministry of Finance.

After the military finished speaking, it was the finance department's turn.

Speaking of it, the Ministry of Finance is the biggest winner in this battle of crossing the south of the Yangtze River, because it doesn't matter whether it is the gold and silver seized by the military or the large amount of gold and silver confiscated by the tax department. Party, others have to be brought under the jurisdiction of the Finance Department, and then be deployed in a unified manner.

Huang Chengxuan, Minister of the Finance Department, is obviously in a good mood now. After the people from the military side finished speaking, he picked up a ledger and flipped through it and said, "Your Majesty, this time we have gained a lot from going south!"

"Only gold, silver, copper coins and other cash, at least 300 million taels were seized, especially in Wuchang City."

"We seized a large amount of gold and silver from the Chu Palace, and then confiscated a large amount of gold and silver during the large-scale raids and confiscations in the city. In the seizure and confiscation operations in other places, we also gained a lot!"

As he said that, Huang Chengxuan turned his attention to Chen Xingkai, Minister of the Taxation Department: "This is also thanks to the efficient work of the Taxation Department. It is amazing to be able to achieve such results in just half a month!"

Then he turned his attention to the three generals of the military: "The colleagues in the military also contributed a lot. Without the bloody battles of the soldiers in front, I would not be able to talk about the gains here."

Chen Xingkai, Minister of the Taxation Department, nodded slightly after hearing this. In this report meeting, he, Chen Xingkai, did not need to make any reports. After all, he was only responsible for making money, but he was not responsible for saving money or counting how much money was eventually stolen.

However, as the secretary of the money making department, Chen Xingkai still got a seat to participate in this meeting.

Several generals in the military were also smiling, and Xu Zhixian nodded to Huang Chengxuan, and made a joke: "They all work for His Majesty, and it's hard to say whether it's hard work or not. Besides, the people in your finance department also It's not easy, with so much money and supplies, it's not easy just to count them all!"

Huang Chengxuan chuckled: "That's right, after every battle, you are the ones who are busy in front, but when the fight is over, it will be our turn to be busy."

"This time, in order to count all kinds of seizures in time, 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 them in the warehouse."

Chen Xingkai, Minister of Taxation, also said: "It's not easy!"

Luo Zhixue at the top couldn't help but smile when he heard these words, but he didn't stop the courtiers from joking with each other.

After all, today is a great day, with several million taels of silver and countless supplies in the account, the courtiers are in a good mood and they are joking with each other, and Luo Zhixue is also in a good mood.

After a laugh, Huang Chengxuan continued: "This batch of cash is still a temporary harvest. At present, we are still confiscating all kinds of recalcitrant officials, big gentry, and colleagues from the tax department. Severe crackdown, it is expected that at least a few hundred thousand taels of silver will be credited in the next half month!"

"After this battle, our current cash reserves have not decreased, but have increased a lot. Now it has exceeded ten million taels."

"At the same time, the reserves of grain and grass have also increased greatly, not to mention that we also control the entire grain-producing area of ​​Wuchang Prefecture, plus the production in northern Chu, I have no worries about grain and grass in Chu!"

"In addition, we have also controlled Daye, and obtained a large amount of iron and copper output. Relying on the raw material output here, plus other iron ore and copper mines under our control, we can completely avoid purchasing them from outsiders in the future. It is enough to import iron and copper materials for self-production, and there is even a large amount of iron materials left over to supply folks to make farm tools."

"Your Majesty, colleagues, the future is promising!"

After finishing speaking, he himself laughed first.

After hearing this, Luo Zhixue laughed in a great mood, and the other courtiers also smiled.

Everyone knows what this money and grain and iron and copper mean.

Money means administrative costs, salary subsidies for soldiers, and guns and ammunition.

With this money, the Great Chu Empire can continue to maintain rapid military expansion and war, and there is no need to worry about not being able to fight without money later.

Not to mention grain and grass, the Great Chu Empire could have no one tael of silver, but it could not be without grain, but Huguang itself is a grain-producing area.

In the late Ming Dynasty and modern times, the saying that Huguang cooked the world enough has been widely spread, which shows the grain production in Huguang area.

These days, the food produced in Huguang is not only for the people of Huguang to eat, but also exported in large quantities for sale.
Even when only Chubei was taken out before, the Great Chu Empire already had no shortage of food, and even had surplus.

Now that Wuchang Mansion is under control, there is no shortage of food.

The final iron and copper materials, which are also important industrial raw materials related to the manufacture of guns in the Great Chu Empire, have now been completely resolved.

So far, the Great Chu Empire is basically self-sufficient in other materials except for the two strategic materials of saltpeter and sulfur that need to be purchased from outside.

At the same time, even for these two kinds of materials, the Great Chu Empire also found a way to produce them themselves.

For example, saltpeter has been implemented in almost the entire control area to make saltpeter by local law. In one place, the output is small, but the accumulation of less makes more!

Sulfur is even more troublesome. The Township Protection Army has not found large-scale natural sulfur mines in Huguang for the time being. They can only extract sulfur through some small-scale pyrite mines. The output is small and the cost is high.

In the short term, the Great Chu Empire basically failed to solve the problems of saltpeter and sulfur on its own, and could only rely on outsourcing!

For this reason, the Great Chu Empire actually supported many commercial firms to engage in the procurement of these strategic materials, the most typical of which were Li Jiafeng and commercial firms.

What's more, the Fenghe Commercial Bank has been doing more and more outrageous things recently, and it has almost risen from the level of ransacking the family and exterminating the clan to the level of punishing the nine clans.

What stands out is a daredevil, lawless!

(End of this chapter)