The Premier Office outside the Ganqing Gate.△↗,.

Ten days have passed since the first official meeting of the General Office. Today, the Siguyan ordered the Minister to discuss matters again and asked the emperor to listen to the affairs. He summoned the cabinet, the Chief Lecture Supervisor, the Six Ministry, the Five Prefectures, the Censorate, the Tongzheng Department and other temple officials came.

Zhou Yanru was in a good mood today, and he had been looking forward to this day a few days ago.

He coughed and said impatiently, "Everyone has worked hard these days, but he has finally calculated all the arrears in the first half of this year and the expenditure budgets in the second half of the year. Now the Ministry of Revenue has made all these statements, which are completely based on the wishes of the prince. The Ministry of Revenue has submitted them to the cabinet, and the cabinet has already drafted all the tickets and handed them to the Prime Minister's Office. Today we will discuss this statement. If it is passed, then we will submit it to the Ministry of Revenue for approval, and then wait for the prince's money and grain to be deposited in the account for the purpose of withdrawing it."

Speaking of this, Zhou Yanru looked at Wu and the other two on the side. "Wu Ge Lao, Liu Zongxian, the Prince, and the Ministry of Revenue's report to the cabinet's ticket, you can take a look, and then submit it to the Prince and the others for approval."

The cabinet's ticket was originally written by Zhou Yanru and Wu Yan, so the two of the four ministers in the Prime Minister's Office have already read and were originally intended by their intentions. The only thing left is the attitude of Liu Zongzhou and Liu Jun.

Before Liu Zongzhou could speak, Liu Jun spoke first.

"Before handing over the cabinet to the cabinet, the report of the Ministry of Revenue will be submitted to the Prime Minister for review according to the procedure." Liu Jun's words are not anxious or slow, unlike Zhou Yanru, who always have to be polite, but his words also have a momentum. He glanced at Zhou Yanru, "I have read the report of the Ministry of Revenue before the cabinet to the cabinet to the cabinet. Today I have read the bill of the cabinet to the cabinet. I dare not agree with the bill of the cabinet, and I cannot accept the report of the Ministry of Revenue. I object to the approval of the bill, and I cannot approve the bonus."

“Why?”

Before Zhou Yanru could jump out, Liu Zongzhou spoke up.

"Can the prince explain the reason for the objection?"

Liu Jun replied slowly, "In this budget, the Ministry of War has the largest number of requests, among which the owed pay for the soldiers and horses in the nine towns of the capital alone is 6 million yuan silver dollars. In addition, the cost of replacing the armies, replenishing war horses, manufacturing chariots, and vans is more than 2 million yuan. In addition, the cost of owed pay, pensions and allowances in the three towns in western Liaoning outside the pass is owed, and the cost of restoring defense, building cities and forts is also 6 million yuan."

"In addition, Shaanxi, Sanbian, Shanxi, Xuanda and other major military regions also have more than 2 million yuan in each military region."

Liu Jun pointed his fingers heavily on the table. "These requests from the Ministry of War alone amount to more than 16 million silver dollars. I would like to ask the officials of the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Revenue, do you really have to handle this matter with sincerity? Or do you just need to report as much as you want?"

Zhou Yanru named Li Banghua, Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, and Chen Xinjia, Minister of the Ministry of War.

"The two ministers will answer the questions of the prince."

"Okay, then I'll answer the prince's questions first." Chen Xinjia, the Minister of War, stood up and said.

Chen Xinjia was also prepared today, so he opened a book of accounts.

"Last year, the imperial court rectified the troops of the world, and a total of 36 towns were organized in the country. Among them, the five major military regions and fifteen towns in the northern border, and the three major camps and nine towns in the capital. Now each town has a total of 30,000 soldiers, and there are 270,000 soldiers in the capital. There are 90,000 war horses, and the same 90,000 horses are harvested. The average cost of raising soldiers in the capital is ten yuan per month per soldier, including soldiers' military pay, rations, horse feeding, weapons supply, maintenance, salaries of officers, as well as rewards, pensions, etc."

"According to this calculation, the soldiers and horses in the nine towns of the capital alone earn 2.7 million guan a month, and 10.8 million guan in April. Now, the salary is owed for nearly four months. There is no problem with the request for more than 8 million silver dollars."

Liu Jun snorted coldly, thinking it was a scam. One month was 2.7 million yuan, which was 32.4 million yuan that year. Even if it was converted into silver, it would be more than 16 million taels. In view of such military expenditure, the entire fiscal revenue of the Ming Dynasty was not enough to support the capital's 200,000 troops.

During the middle of Chongzhen period, the imperial court collected more than 10 million taels of silver every year, plus other income, and less than 20 million taels of silver, most of which were used for military expenditure. Among them, five or six million taels of silver was transferred to western Liaoning outside the pass every year. There were also a large amount of food, grass and equipment.

The military expenditure of the remaining towns on the nine borders is only one million taels per year.

The military pay issue in the Ming Dynasty was actually very complicated. In the early years, it was built by the garrison office. All the military households in each garrison were stationed in the fields and some guarded the city. Then, each guard took turns to the capital to serve as a guard to guard the capital every year.

Most of the grain cultivated by the garrison itself entered the garrison warehouse and became military rations for the garrison, while some were sent to the military households to become their food. Zhu Yuanzhang once said proudly that I would raise millions of soldiers without spending a grain of grain from the country.

However, in the later period, the military farms were mostly occupied by officers, and the military households became officers and tenants, and their military equipment was not built, and their combat power was not strong. In the end, the imperial court had to implement the battalion system in the border areas. They recruited young and strong troops from the garrison or local areas to guard the border. In this way, they had to pay military salaries.

The military pay of the border soldiers is not high, about one or two taels a month, but the military pay of the border soldiers is not only the salary. Their military pay consists of four parts: salary, monthly food, food delivery, and reward. In addition to getting wages, there is also food. Once the troops are sent, another food delivery has to be issued. In most cases, there must be silver. Once a war is fought, there will often be rewards to boost morale.

If the border troops are only stationed, the cost will be less. Once they have to send troops to fight, or even support Liao from a long distance, or serve the king or go south to suppress the rebellion, it will greatly increase the expenses. Many border troops will inflict troops outside and fight the war, and will directly fight back to their hometown because they cannot get the payment of food and salary when they go to war.

During the Chongzhen period, the ward system had completely collapsed and had basically no effect. The border troops relied on recruiting soldiers to fight. The soldiers of the border troops were later basically divided into three categories. The towns were the main soldiers, the other towns came to the aid as the guest soldiers, and the local civilians recruited as local soldiers.

At first, the main soldiers did not support the grain, and the guest soldiers did not support the monthly grain. However, later, wars were frequent. In order to boost morale, the monthly traffic was supported by both sides, and salt, vegetables and silver were added.

At that time, the most expensive thing the court consumed was these guest soldiers, and the military pay for the guest soldiers was three times that of the main soldiers.

Before Chongzhen's death, he reorganized the troops and horses, completely abolished the garrison, organized new troops, and recruited soldiers. There was no longer a division of main soldiers and guest soldiers, and even military pay was no longer a transfer of grain, monthly grain, salt, grass, food, salary, etc. Instead, it was distributed in silver dollars.

It turns out that the salary of the border soldiers was about two taels. The officers in the military heads were higher, and the food and salary of the soldiers and horses in the capital were also higher. After the rectification, the salary of the soldiers and horses in each town was divided into third-class. The eleven towns in Liaodong, western Liaoning, and the Beiyang Navy ranked first. After the average price of each soldier was five silver dollars, the nine towns in Shanxi, Shaanxi and Shandong were the second-class in the border soldiers. The average price of each soldier was four silver dollars per month.

Then there are the soldiers and horses of other towns, each soldier who is free of three silver dollars every month.

Although the original decision was to pay for the true colors, the army provided food, no longer issued grain, monthly grain, salt and vegetable money, and also issued silver dollars in a unified manner, no longer discounted colors, rewards and pensions were calculated. In addition, the supply of horses and mules and military supplies also cost a lot of money.

but.

No matter how much the cost is, it is limited. Especially from last year to this year, there has been no wars for more than a year, so there will naturally not be too much military expenditure without wars. It is just a basic food and salary expense.

Liu Jun didn't use his head, he just needed to calculate it. He couldn't even calculate it. In just four months of owing wages, the capital of Jingxiu had more than 8 million yuan in military expenditure.

Even if the first-class military pay is calculated, each soldier is five yuan per month, and the nine towns in the capital, and 270,000 people are only one hundred and three hundred and fifty thousand yuan, even if 180,000 horses and mules are added, it will not exceed one million.

All of them totaled, at most about 2 million. However, the Ministry of War reported more than 8 million.

What's more, Liu Jun had already figured out the nine towns in the capital, saying that the nine towns were all full. In fact, the nine towns were basically reorganized by the three camps of the original three camps.

The Jing camp had been rotten for a long time. The Qing army entered the pass several times, but the Jing camp could not even defend the capital. They still leaned on the border to support the king. Many of the soldiers in the Jing camp were in name but not real, and the quota was full. In fact, the officers ate a large part of the empty salary, and many of the remaining ones were called for names and paid for grain, and bought people to hire service. What does it mean?

It means spending money to bribe the officers, then register a name on the roster, and then receive monthly salary and monthly food, but in fact, it is not enough to be trained or on duty. When you need to practice and review, you spend money on the street to hire a idler or beggar or something and send it to the camp to fool him.

The vacancy plus these bets accounted for most of the remaining people. Most of the old and weak in the capital army could not do anything, but they just stumbled to die. The rest were all recruited by the royal relatives and noble ministers in the capital to guard the door, guard, or directly dragged them to work.

Anyway, the 270,000 troops named Nine Towns can be regarded as soldiers, which is a very small part, and these parts are still servants of the generals.

Liu Jun believes that the Ministry of War must know this situation, the Ministry of Revenue, and the Cabinet also knows it.

But these people were fooling each other. Back then, they fooled Chongzhen, and organized a reorganization of the Beijing Army and trained the Nine Towns. In fact, they changed the soup and did not change the medicine.

Now they are fooling Liu Jun again, and with the roster, they dare to ask Liu Jun for eight million.

Liu Jun sneered.

"I, how do you calculate the monthly silver price of more than 2.7 million yuan? The Beijing army will only pay five yuan in silver dollars every month, and only 1.35 million yuan a month. What's more, although the court owes the salary for April, it only owes the food. And as far as I know, it's not that the salary for April is owed. First of all, the officers paid the salary, and the soldiers also received 30% of the salary every month."

Liu Jun tapped on the table again.

"After this calculation, even if there are really 270,000 soldiers, the salary for four months is only 3.78 million silver dollars. I will tell me where did the more than 8 million silver dollars come from?"

"Also, in front of His Majesty, do you dare say that there are really 270,000 troops in the Nine Towns of Gyeonggi?"

Zhu Cilang sat in the upper head and watched his righteous brother be majestic in the hall, making Chen Xinjia, the Minister of War who had served as Xuanda and the Governor of Shanxi, speak silently, and feels very excited.

"Brother, is there no 270,000 troops in the nine towns in the capital?"

The emperor's words made Chen Xinjia sweat. Of course, there was no 270,000 army in the nine towns of the capital, but in fact the real 270,000 army was at most about 70,000.

The others were either the officers who had paid empty wages, or the money was spent on fame and food, and many were the old and weak, and many were recruited by the wealthy ministers and even major yamen in the capital to serve.

This was a historical unspoken rule, and everyone knew it well. The reason why no one was to blame was that it involved too many people's interests.

Chen Xinjia dared not answer.

Liu Jun snorted coldly, "I am a soldier, your Majesty is asking you."

"There is basically this one."

"What does it mean basically exist? There is one, there is nothing, there is nothing." Liu Jun was aggressive.

"Yes!" Chen Xinjia could only cross his neck and talk lies with his eyes open.

Liu Jun smiled. He didn't expect that Chen Xinjia would dare to say such things at this time. But this would be even better. Now he admitted it in front of the emperor, and he couldn't even blame him in the future.

"Oh, is it? Your Majesty is here today. I will ask Your Majesty for a proposal. It is better to hold a military parade in the North Suburbs outside Deshengmen in five days. Your Majesty will personally inspect the style of the soldiers of the Beijing camp and boost morale?"

Zhu Cilang is very interested in this proposal.

Nodded repeatedly.

Liu Jun took advantage of the victory and pursued, "Five days later, Your Majesty will personally inspect the soldiers and horses of the three towns of the Imperial Guards. At that time, check the list. You can tell whether it is enough. Everyone, if it is really enough for the troops and the amount is enough, then I will also pay the silver dollars in full."

Chen Xinjia was sweating and wet his back. Now he really regretted why he was obsessed with saying that he had it. What should I do now? Five days later, the military parade was on the Beijiao Grand College. With Jun, an expert, he could fool him. Then he could see the problem at a glance.

What should I do?

He glanced at the two elders, Zhou Yanru and Wu Yan. Unfortunately, they both looked at the nose and the heart at this time. Both of them were old foxes, and they had long understood that Liu Jun had already grasped Chen Xinjia's sick foot. Liu Jun was about to establish his authority. Although they didn't want to see this result, the current situation was the Jingying, and whoever jumped into it would be a pit.

Liu Jun smiled slightly, "Don't approve the Ministry of War's budget for the time being. Let's discuss it after reviewing it, what?"

What else could Zhou Yanru and Wu Yan say? He could only nod and agree, and Liu Zongzhou would not object. He knew the many disadvantages of the capital, but the water there was too deep, so he couldn't control it. Now that Liu Jun is willing to charge, he is naturally willing to beat drums and cheer behind him. (To be continued.)

ps: Thank you for the passers-by who only read and don’t write, 光克, thank you!
Chapter completed!