The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 338: No Money, No War

Wanli issued another decree to prepare for the expedition against the Tumed tribe.

Sanniangzi and Chelike were only slightly startled when they heard the news.

Buyan Khan was shocked when he heard the news.

Because the young emperor of the Ming Dynasty was playing tricks on them.

This guy has issued several orders to conquer the Tumed tribe.

As a result, the Tumed tribe was left unscathed, but the three Doyan guards and the Chahar tribe were destroyed!

Now who else can this guy attack if not the Tumed tribe?
It can only be them!

Buyan Khan was so frightened that he was ready to run away to Nurgandusi with his men.

However, this time Wanli really wanted to conquer the Tumed tribe.

As soon as he issued an imperial edict, Pianguan Town, Yansui Town and Guyuan Town began to expand their cavalry.

At this moment, the output of war horses in the nine border areas of the Ming Dynasty is simply too much. Last year, 50,000 horses were allocated to Liaodong Town, and there are still 30,000 to 40,000 horses left. It is no problem to expand the cavalry of Pianguan Town, Yansui Town and Guyuan Town to 40,000.

Immediately afterwards, Wanli issued another decree, ordering the Jinling Longjiangzhou Treasure Shipyard to quickly prepare timber for building city fortresses.

In March, when the spring is warm and the flowers are blooming, the Beiyun River and Chaobai River have thawed. The navy warships immediately form long lines and continue to transport timber to the Summer Resort.

There was also a long line of horse-drawn carriages from the Summer Resort, pulling timber towards Longchengwei.

There were also grain carts from Datong Town, Pianguan Town, Yansui Town and Guyuan Town, which formed long lines and continuously transported grain and supplies towards Longchengwei and Qiantao Plain.

The sound was so loud that even a blind person could see it.

Everyone's attention seemed to be attracted by the thousands of navy warships and carriages. Dozens of centipede boats rowed into the imperial city at dusk, and no one seemed to notice.

Around twilight that afternoon, as darkness approached, Emperor Wanli was enjoying dinner in the kitchen of Kunning Palace with his concubines, princes, and princesses. Suddenly, Li Xuancheng poked his head in and said, "Your Majesty, the Navy Commander-in-Chief, Deng Zilong, wishes to see you."

Finally here.

Upon hearing this, Wanli immediately stood up and said, "You guys eat, I'll go take a look."

After saying that, he walked out quickly.

What is Deng Zilong doing here now?

Of course he came to give money.

Wanli was waiting for this money.

Without the profits from overseas trade, he really couldn't bear it.

Now there are nearly 600,000 border troops alone, which means more than 10 million taels of silver in food and wages a year.

There are also the Beijing Camp, the Imperial Guards, the Embroidered Uniform Guards, the Sichuan Army's White-Pole Soldiers, the Navy officers and soldiers, etc., which together number more than 600,000. The food and salary alone is more than 20 million taels this year.

The two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty could only earn this much money at most. Without the profits from overseas trade, they could not even afford to fight a war, let alone expand the army.

A war is about to break out with the Tumed and Kharchin tribes, and next year there will be a big battle with the Japanese pirates. How can he not be anxious?

He was so anxious that he almost jumped up.

At this time, Deng Zilong was already waiting outside the imperial study.

After the emperor and his subjects exchanged greetings, he hurriedly pulled Deng Zilong into the imperial study, sat down on either side of the tea table, and immediately asked impatiently, "How is it, Yun Qing, how much gold and silver did you bring this time?"

Deng Zilong said without hesitation: "Five hundred thousand taels of gold and four million taels of silver."

The total value of this is only tens of thousands of taels of silver.

Li Yuansheng started deducting money from the Zhejiang Party last year, and he even returned from a trip to Southeast Asia this year.

Upon hearing this, Wanli frowned slightly and said, "Why is it so little? Didn't Yuansheng bring a lot of silk, cloth, porcelain, etc. with him when he went to Southeast Asia this time?"

Deng Zilong explained in detail, "Yuan Sheng said that he gave most of his money to Shen Weijing last year. After deducting the food and wages for his soldiers, there wasn't much left. This year, he brought a lot of silk, cloth, and porcelain to Southeast Asia, but the merchants there didn't have much spare money, so they couldn't buy much.

Moreover, he plans to blackmail the Zhejiang Party twice this year, and they have to give them some money. If they don't give them any money, there will probably be no next time after he blackmails them once.

However, he said that this trip to Japan should bring back three to four million taels. People in Southeast Asia, including the Spanish, have already started preparing money. Even if we can't bring back much in the first half of the year, we should be able to bring back at least 20 million taels in the second half of the year."

By this calculation, it is almost more than 30 million taels.

It seems that he is still a little anxious. The money for these goods is not a small amount. If they suddenly add so many goods, it will take time for others to prepare the money.

Wanli nodded slightly when he heard this, and then asked, "How is Yuansheng planning to extort money these two times this year?"

Deng Zilong recalled: "Yuan Sheng said that when he returned from Southeast Asia in the first half of this year, he said that the Spanish fleet transporting gold and silver encountered a storm at sea and was blown away. It is unknown when they will gather in Luzon.

Most of the money in Nanyang came from the Spaniards. Now that this part was gone, he just needed to give Shen Weijing a few million taels.

When he returned from Japan in the second half of this year, he said the Japanese pirates were preparing for war and that he didn't have much money. Toyotomi Hideyoshi said he would pay him if he took over Korea, a vassal state. After that extortion trip, it was almost over, so not paying any money didn't matter.

This guy is really smart.

Wanli nodded slightly, then asked, "How many naval officers and soldiers are you short of to operate the ships?"

This is a scary amount.

Deng Zilong explained in detail: "Your Majesty, last year the Longjiangzhou Treasure Shipyard built more than fifty 2,000-ton Fuzhou ships, 200 1,000-ton Fuzhou ships, and 1,200 centipede ships, which required 60,000 to 70,000 soldiers to operate.

In the first half of this year, they sent another 600 centipede ships and 100 2,000-ton Fu ships, which required 50,000 to 60,000 soldiers to operate. I had no choice but to send 400-ton octopus ships to the Yunnan-Guizhou-Sichuan Xingdusi.

Even if we give all the navy's octopus boats to the Yunnan-Guizhou-Sichuan Maritime Command, we'll only be able to gather enough ships for the first half of this year. We really won't be able to gather enough for the second half."

The navy must be expanded.

The problem is that Li Yuansheng won't be able to make much money this year. Even if he can make more than 20 million taels from the trip to Nanyang in the second half of the year, it will not be delivered until March next year.

How much money can I make this year?

This trip is worth a little more than 10 million taels, plus the 3 or 4 million taels from Japan, plus the several million taels that could be squeezed out of Southeast Asia in the first half of the year, at most it would be around 20 million taels.

He didn't know how many military rewards he would give out for this battle between the Tumed and Kharchin tribes.

The total number of young and strong men capable of fighting in these two tribes is estimated to be more than 100,000. Killing 100,000 of them will result in a military reward of 5 million taels.

There are also pensions for the injured and dead soldiers, food and vegetables for more than 100,000 or 200,000 troops, the cost of building cities and fortresses, etc. All of these probably add up to tens of millions of taels.

We can't even fight a war without money, let alone expand the navy?
Wanli calculated carefully, then sighed slightly and said, "There's nothing we can do. We need money everywhere. In the second half of this year, you can only expand your army by 50,000 at most. I'll fill it up after March next year."

There is nothing you can do if you don’t have money.

Deng Zilong nodded repeatedly and said, "Okay, I understand."

Wanli thought about it carefully and asked, "By the way, how is the Zhejiang-Zhehai maritime ban going? Has anyone been arrested?"

Deng Zilong said carefully, "Your Majesty, we've caught quite a few people because of the Zhejiang maritime ban. These days, there are so many people who don't buy permits and go overseas to do business. In the past, the navy didn't have many ships, so we couldn't conduct such strict inspections. Therefore, we arrest thousands of people at a time."

These guys, instead of buying Kanhe, they still want to steal my business?

Wanli said coldly: "Catch all those who are not worthy, no matter how many there are."

Deng Zilong quickly bowed and said, "I understand."

Wanli asked again: "Is there anyone who can match it?"

Deng Zilong nodded repeatedly and said, "There are also some who have bought the Kanhe, besides our Ming Dynasty merchants, there are also Ryukyu merchants."

That’s good. If no one buys the ticket, the news won’t get out.

He was preparing to conquer the Tumed and Kharchin tribes with such great fanfare because he wanted to let the Japanese pirates know that their cavalry had gone thousands of miles to the west.

Fortunately, this news was still able to reach Japan. Ryukyu purchased goods from the Ming Dynasty in order to do business with Japan.

(End of this chapter)