A son who doesn't resemble his father? Love you, old man, see you at Xuanwu Gate!

Chapter 69 Hunting Patrol
The cold wind howled, and ice crystals clung to the branches.

The scenery is magnificent and picturesque.

Northern Army.

Huo Qubing found Liu Ju admiring the rime ice and called out from afar, "Brother Ju!"

The sound reverberated across both sides of the strait.

Some fragile ice crystals, teetering on the verge of collapse, shone brightly and dazzlingly in the shimmering sunlight.

"Brother."

"The national treasury and the imperial palace have sent another ten thousand taels of gold," Huo Qubing whispered as he approached.

"Ah."

The Grand Minister of Agriculture, Yan Yi, and the Minister of the Imperial Treasury, Zhao Yu, had no way back and could only follow him, the crown prince, to the end. Liu Ju nodded and said, "It was the deficit of the Southern Army, money given by the Li family of Longxi and the Han family of Yingchuan."

The money spent on eating ten thousand pigs a day had already been recouped thanks to the patronage of the two high-ranking officials. On the contrary, the Li and Han families suffered significant losses due to Li Gan's recklessness.

Don't assume that powerful and wealthy families are even richer just because Dongguo Xianyang and Kong Jin became central government officials at the cost of 600,000 gold coins.

This is entirely a beautiful misunderstanding.

Whether they were powerful families, large clans, or local magnates, they were all local forces. They relied on the mountains and rivers for their livelihood, and the size of their wealth depended entirely on the prosperity of the region.

The best places in the Han Dynasty were divided up by the founding heroes from the very beginning of the country. For example, the Li family, whose ancestral home was Huaili and whose current residence was Chengji in Longxi, was not exactly a poor and remote place, but it was definitely not a rich place either. In addition, it bordered the Xiongnu and was often plundered. The Li family had some wealth, but not much.

Yingchuan is indeed a good place, with a strong literary atmosphere. However, this small place is crammed with a large number of people. The Han family returned during the reign of Marquis Gonggao, Han Tui. The original interests had long been settled. As a new clan, they managed to take some food from the old clan, but not much.

It is believed that after this lesson, Li Gan, the second generation of the Li family, will learn to be more cautious in his words and deeds.

"The Court of Justice is also sending money, and it's coming in continuously," Huo Qubing added.

"That was money confiscated from salt and iron merchants. It wasn't a continuous flow; there were only eighty-seven such merchants," Liu Ju explained.

Dongguo Xianyang and Kong Jin bought their official positions from their father, the emperor, but sold them to the major salt and iron merchants across the land. The money paid by the salt and iron officials who died in front of Chengming Hall must have exceeded 600,000 gold coins.

Under Zhang Tang's threat, Dongguo Xianyang and Kong Jin betrayed him and produced evidence of the extermination of the salt and iron merchants and their families, which led to the complete annihilation of the salt and iron merchants and their families in the Han Dynasty.

With the deaths of the people and the extermination of their clans, all their ill-gotten gains were confiscated. Zhang Tang, being a man of direct expression, sent all of these assets to the Northern Army, or rather, the Crown Prince's Palace.

For Dongguo Xianyang and Kong Jin to encounter Zhang Tang was the greatest misfortune of their lives, and for those wealthy salt and iron merchants to follow Dongguo Xianyang and Kong Jin's advice and become officials was also the greatest misfortune of their lives.

"How much money would that be?" Huo Qubing asked, his heart pounding.

Liu Ju thought for a moment, "No less than three million gold coins."

Dongguo Xianyang and Kong Jin had promised their father that they would offer 300,000 taels of gold annually for ten years, which made their father consider building four magnificent palaces: Jianzhang Palace, Beigong Palace, Guigong Palace, and Mingguang Palace.

My father is the kind of person who won't act until he sees a clear benefit. If Dongguo Xianyang, Kong Jin, and those salt and iron merchants couldn't come up with that much money, it would be impossible for him to allow so many merchants to serve as officials, or even as officials under the central government.

"Enough to fight two major battles!" Huo Qubing had a unique way of assessing wealth.

Take, for example, the great battle in early spring when 10,000 cavalrymen launched a four-pronged attack on the Xiongnu. It cost three million gold coins, enough for about two such battles. Liu Ju suddenly thought of something and asked, "Brother, since a single battle only costs a million gold coins, why has the military expenditure of our Han Dynasty reached tens of millions of gold coins over the past ten years?"

Emperors Xiaowen and Xiaojing left behind millions of gold. If we disregard the extravagance of their fathers and the normal expenses of the court, the military expenditure of the Han Dynasty over the past ten years or so was probably around fifty million gold.

An annual military expenditure of four million gold coins is unreasonable.
Huo Qubing paused for a moment, "According to my brother, I don't know much about the specifics of the military expenses. I only vaguely heard my uncle mention that it was related to the failed Mayi plot twelve years ago."

"Ok?"

"In the second year of the Yuanguang era, Nie Wengyi, a powerful local magistrate from Mayi in Yanmen Commandery, submitted a plan to His Majesty through Wang Hui, the Grand Master of Ceremonies, proposing a strategy to completely annihilate the Xiongnu Chanyu's army..."

The plot to capture Mayi was simple: Nie Wengyi would act as a spy and go to the Xiongnu Chanyu, claiming that he could kill the magistrate and assistant magistrate of Mayi and surrender the city. He would use the Xiongnu's greed for the wealth in the Han city to lure the main force of the Xiongnu into the city, while the Han army would ambush them in advance and wipe them out.

It sounds like a fantasy, but it is highly feasible. Back then, His Majesty was eager to establish his military prowess and insisted on carrying it out. He not only personally led the expedition but also mobilized an army of 300,000.

What does an army of 300,000 mean? After the Mayi Incident, Your Majesty waged war against the Xiongnu several times over the years, with the number of troops mostly around 100,000, and never exceeding 200,000 again.

The 300,000-strong army was the largest force the empire could muster at the time. To put it bluntly, it was the entire nation's strength, intended to cripple the Xiongnu and shatter the imperial court in one battle.

The entire empire's army was mobilized from all over the country to the Yanmen Pass. Even if they did nothing, the daily consumption of grain and fodder was astronomical. Moreover, with the emperor present, how could the pomp and circumstance be small? How could the soldiers not be well-fed and clothed?

In the end, they watched helplessly as the Xiongnu came down from right under their noses and then left again, achieving nothing but incurring huge losses.

It is said that it contains more than 20 million gold.

The issue of military spending in the Han Dynasty is not a recent problem; it is the earliest problem.

A large-scale military campaign that ended in failure wasted over a decade's worth of military expenditure for the Han Dynasty.

Liu Ju, “…”

Fortunately, the Han Dynasty had a strong financial foundation, so losing once or twice was not a big problem. It was just like the Han army collectively taking a stroll around Yanmen County. There was no "Tumu Crisis" like in later generations, where generals died in battle and the emperor had to "tour north".

Huo Qubing did not want to say much about His Majesty's humiliating defeat, and changed the subject, saying, "According to my brother, the Prime Minister's office sent a letter asking me to lead elite cavalry on a patrol in Guanzhong and Guandong to guard against unforeseen circumstances."

The new vehicle and vessel tax policy brings commercial taxes close to three times that of commercial taxes. Although people say they are not worried about merchants causing chaos, they may be able to despise the enemy strategically, but not tactically.

If we invite the Champion Marquis to take action, he will surely be able to suppress everything.

"Brother, the spring campaign will begin in a little over a month. Is there enough time? Can you keep up with the energy and stamina?" Liu Ju was somewhat disagreeing.

Compared to the anti-Shang resistance to the new policies, Liu Ju believed that the spring campaign against the Xiongnu was more important, while Huo Qubing needed more rest and preparation for war.

"No problem, the roads in Guanzhong and Guandong are much smoother than those in Mobei," Huo Qubing said easily.

For Han generals on the Han-Xiongnu battlefield, the most difficult task was not fighting, but finding the Xiongnu royal court and killing them, which did not take long.

The wealthy merchants in the country were all well-known, with names, clans, and lands. They traveled between the two regions with ease and pleasure.

"Alright, brother, you can go then."

(End of this chapter)