Autumn of the 17th year of Chongzhen

Chapter 945 Buying a War Horse
"The specific process of the Battle of Hezhou, combined with Jiang Tianyi's beating report and the news of the spy investigation, is indeed the rebellion of Chen Ke, the commander of the Zhenwei Camp, which led to the fall of the city. The Ministry of War suggested controlling Chen Ke's family members. As for the family members of other soldiers, It will be given a lighter sentence, but the tax reduction and exemption and military land will be cancelled."

Chen Bangyan turned a page and continued: "The following is the layout of the imperial court in the southwest and Sichuan. At present, Guangxi, Guizhou, and Eastern Sichuan have assembled 14 troops. For the time being, Mr. He Ge is in charge of the overall situation. The situation has basically stabilized. , The next step is to rush a large amount of supplies into the southwest and prepare for war."

The strategic focus of the Ming army has always been to fight against the Qing army, so the Ming Dynasty was not fully prepared for the sudden crisis in the southwest.Although tens of thousands of troops have already moved in, the supporting materials have not kept up, and it will take some time to deploy them.

Hearing this, Wang Yan knocked on the cloud board in front of the table and asked, "Sun Kewang and Haoge, who does the Ministry of War want to hit first?"

This issue is a question that Wang Yan is very concerned about. Haoge broke the contract and killed his general. It was like a stab in the back, which made him very uncomfortable, especially the aristocratic families in Guangdong and Guangxi felt threatened and lobbied everywhere. Many voices around Wang Yan urged him to deal with Sun Kewang quickly.

Chen Bangyan listened and turned around, "Your Highness, the Ministry of War has not yet made a decision on this matter. The Jin envoy has already arrived in Nanjing. I don't know how to talk with the Ministry of Rites and what the cabinet thinks. As for Sun Kewang, Mr. There is a verbal agreement, and envoys will come over in the near future, and the Ministry of War must wait for the cabinet to discuss with the envoys of the two parties before making a decision."

"Don't talk about the envoys of the two parties, just from the perspective of the Ministry of War, is there any tendency for the Ministry of War to deal with whom first?" Wang Yan continued to ask.

Chen Bangyan nodded, "Yes, the Ministry of War's opinion is to fight Sun Kewang first, because Sun Kewang is weak and easier to deal with, and he is volatile. If we fight Haoge, the Ministry of War is worried that Sun Kewang will fall to Haoge at a critical moment. "

Wang Yan was silent for a while, and then said: "Okay, let's wait until we meet the two envoys."

Seeing this, Gu Yuanjing immediately said, "Are there any objections to the issue of rewards and punishments for the Sichuan issue, as well as the issue of preparing for war and dispatching urgent supplies to the Southwest?"

Everyone whispered to each other for a while. Although they were not sure which side to fight, everyone knew the problem in the southwest. Now that the north and the south are facing each other, it is difficult to organize a large-scale northern expedition before the Ming army has trained cavalry. It has become inevitable to shift the strategy to the southwest, eliminate the threat from the rear, and integrate the interior.

Seeing that no one had any objections, Gu Yuanjing voted immediately, and then continued: "The Ministry of War begins to state the second clause."

"The second one is about buying horses!" Chen Bangyan unfolded another brochure, stood up and said, "I currently have more than [-] horses, which are mainly raised in the horse farms in Huguang, but some of these horses are already old, and some of them are old. Some have hidden diseases, and the rest are far from meeting the needs of the army."

The war horses of the Ming army mainly came from captured horses, and horse breeding and horse herding were not as good as those in the north. Moreover, the Ming army did not have good stallions, and the newborn foals could not keep up with the consumption of war horses, and the number of horses was decreasing every year.

Chen Bangyan looked at the more than a hundred officials in the hall, and then said in a deep voice: "The Ministry of War plans to train 150 elite cavalry within five years, so it proposes to the meeting hall that an additional military expenditure of [-] million taels a year be used to purchase horses and breeding war horses."

150 million taels, the people in the hall immediately started talking.The taxation of the imperial court is not owned by the Ministry of War. The other ministries have to share the money. Whoever gets more money will have a better job in the next year, and life will be easier. Now the Ministry of War needs to add 150 million yuan every year, and the budget of other departments is to shrink.

Since the forecast was made, each department has worked hard on its own plan for the one-year plan in order to get the most budget, and then picked faults in the plans of other departments to reduce the budget of other departments. budget.

The household department warehouse, in addition to the annual budget, there is also a special warehouse, which reserves a certain amount of emergency money. The purpose is to prevent the outbreak of wars and catastrophes. In case any part exceeds the budget, apply again. The money in it is also the object of the ministries' close attention, so naturally it will not be so easy to give up to the Ministry of War.

"150 million taels, and it increases every year, so much?" Su Guansheng immediately knocked on the board and asked.

Chen Bangyan explained: "Dorgon and Haoge in the north have blocked us. Now the price of a war horse in Jiangnan has risen to more than 100 taels, and there is still a price but no market. 150 million taels is already the minimum."

"No, 150 million is too much. The Ministry of Punishment has a budget of 50 a year. If your military department adds one more, it will be three times ours. How can this work?"

Cavalry must be trained, but materials such as war horses are extremely important strategic materials, and they are the key targets of the northern blockade, just like the Ming Dynasty blocked refined iron, fire nitrate and other materials.

If the war horse is on the grassland, in fact, the iron pot and tea can be exchanged, which is not expensive, but the reason why it costs nearly a hundred taels in the south of the Yangtze River is mainly because the Qing army and the Jin army fought against the Ming Dynasty in order to maintain the advantage of cavalry. The blockade artificially caused the price of war horses to skyrocket.

Hearing the objections from the audience, Wang Yan couldn't help but also frowned, and then asked: "How does the Ministry of War obtain war horses at present? Is there any way to reduce the budget?"

"The main source of the army's war horses is captured from the battlefield and bred by the horse farm itself, and then some are obtained through some smugglers in the north." Chen Bangyan said solemnly: "The Ministry of War also thought about reducing the budget. , willing to sell horses to us, but now the Dashi area is controlled by the Turks, they are enemies with the Xiyi, and it is difficult for the Xiyi merchants to obtain horses, so the asking price is extremely high. The Ministry of War is going to buy a batch of stallions for breeding. In addition, only by capturing Hanzhong in Sichuan, occupying Longyou, breaking the blockade in the north, buying horses from Qinghai, or destroying Yunnan and controlling Wusi Tibet, can also open up connections with Qinghai and the Western Regions to obtain war horses. "

Wang Yan nodded. It is indeed a way to buy stallions from overseas, but it is estimated that it will not take a few years to complete the breeding by yourself. If you want to obtain a large number of war horses, you still have to destroy Sun Kewang, defeat Haoge, and break the blockade to get a large number of horses. war horse.

"First, buy some stallions from Xiyi. We can slow down the purchase of horses from other channels. How about using the money for the Southwest War?"

(End of this chapter)