The Prosperous Era of Longwan

"Has Li Chengliang in Southwest reported how much money he can send back?"

In response to the question raised by Zhang Juzheng, Wei Guangde shook his head and said with a wry smile: "Calculating the time, I should have received the official document from the Ministry of War. Even if it is shipped immediately, it will take three to five months at the earliest."

"It's also after the New Year. Do you think we can move the money prepared for His Majesty's wedding to solve the shortfall of money at the end of the year first?

Wait until the silver from the southwest arrives next year to make up for it? "

Zhang Juzheng said hesitantly.

Hearing Zhang Juzheng's words, Wei Guangde frowned slightly, then shook his head gently and said: "Uncle, this is absolutely impossible.

The two people in the palace care deeply about His Majesty and would never agree to this.

Even if we go behind the palace's back, once the news reaches their ears, it will be detrimental to you, me and Lord Wang. "

Wei Guangde didn't think this was a good idea, and he also knew Zhang Juzheng's considerations.

In fact, no matter what, the emperor's wedding cannot be short of money.

Not to mention the silver deposits in the inner court, the silver in Changying's treasury is piled up like a mountain, exceeding ten million taels.

But so what?

Zhang Juzheng still wanted to maintain the normal operation of the court as much as possible without using Chang Ying's money. This was the achievement of the cabinet and the Ministry of Household Affairs.

Even if the imperial court's revenue and expenditure are still in deficit, as long as the money in Chang Ying's treasury is not used, it means that it is not much and it is still within the controllable range.

Zhang Juzheng actually took the imperial court's financial deficit very seriously, and he also grasped the fundamental basis for the operation of the feudal empire, which was money.

There is no big thing in the world that cannot be accomplished as long as you have money.

Even if the money collected from "excessive levies and expropriations" is not used for extravagant and lustful life, but is kept in the court for future use, then the world will not be in chaos.

Because the imperial court has money, it can quell all disobedience.

"Brother, it's better to be patient and calm. After the important event of clearing the father-in-law is carried out, the court will not be short of money."

Wei Guangde finally said some words of comfort. If he really did this, he might gain points in the eyes of the courtiers, but in the palace, it would be a huge loss.

"Haha, it's just that the announcement of the abdication of Fujian's abbot has just been announced, and the dirty things about me and the palace are already being spread outside. I don't know what will happen when the abbot of Fujian is completed and the provinces across the country begin to abdicate."

Zhang Juzheng had a bitter smile on his face, sighed and stopped talking.

"What Mr. Zhang did was for the country and the people. We know it, and the palace also knows it."

Wei Guangde had no choice but to say.

There is so much involved here that Zhang Ji has not yet found out where the rumors came from, and neither has the palace.

However, the Queen Mother expressed her anger, so Feng Bao immediately cleaned the palace and showed it to Queen Mother Li to calm down the anger of Cining Palace.

But Wei Guangde also knew that Feng Bao was still asking Dongchang and Jinyiwei to continue investigating the matter, which obviously did not end there.

It seems that Zhang Juzheng has determined that it was caused by some gentry officials in the court.

Think about it, this is the most likely possibility.

It doesn't mean that because you are the chief assistant, others are afraid of you.

Everyone has an official status, but their positions are different.

In the Ming Dynasty, people in the officialdom were actually equal to each other under normal circumstances. They were all Jinshi, and no one was superior to the other.

Of course, those who work in the camp will naturally be extremely flattering to the Shangguan, but that is another matter.

"Let the Ministry of War discuss it and submit a memorial. I agree with the Northern Patrol Nuer Gancheng."

Zhang Juzheng calmed down and said to Wei Guangde.

In Awa City, Myanmar, Li Chengliang had already read the document sent by the Ministry of War in the capital, and then said to the soldiers beside him: "I will send someone to send this document to Toungoo City immediately, and send a message to Rusong by the way. Count the harvest as soon as possible, send the list back, and fly to the capital immediately. "

Just as Wei Guangde said, Li Chengliang had just received the document from the Ministry of War and saw that Southwest was asking Southwest to transport the captured troops back to Beijing as soon as possible.

Although Li Chengliang was still a little dissatisfied, he didn't even say how much money he had left to reward the soldiers who had made meritorious service in the battle. This is how he, the governor, could face the soldiers under his command.

Soldiers fight for more than just the money.

Well, everything will be transported away at once, and the people below have no thoughts at all.

Of course, the money here refers to the reward given by the imperial court to the soldiers. The soldiers who participated in the battle this time, as long as they ran in front, will gain more or less. He has also collected several boxes of property.

However, those were his seizures and were not counted as being handed over to the court.

Private distribution of spoils of war was actually very common in this era. Except for things coming out of special places that had to be turned over, most other things were ignored.

Because there is no number at all, it’s just the number reported below.

When Li Rusong went south, Li Chengliang told him about the main task this time.

The first is to completely control the south. After all, Yu Dayou's letter also said that the navy does not have enough soldiers to control the huge area in southern Myanmar for a long time.

The second is the capture of Toungoo City. Although the sea route is smooth, there is also the risk of capsizing. Although the land route is difficult, it is safe.

As for the time, it seems that they are not much different, they all take a few months.

Of course, for Li Chengliang, it is more important to obtain food and grass supplements from the south.

The military rations stored in Yunnan are almost empty. If sufficient military supplies are not found, Li Chengliang will have no choice but to issue an order to plunder and let his men raise their own rations.

After all, it takes time to transfer from Guangxi, Guizhou and other places, which seems to be a bit too late.

The terrain in the southwest seems more complicated than that in Liaodong, with mountains, rivers and ravines connected, rivers and swamps densely covered, and large-scale material transportation is too difficult.

On the other hand, the journey from southern Myanmar is very smooth, and the transportation of materials is extremely convenient.

At this time, in Toungoo City, the former royal capital of Myanmar, Li Rusong was also leading people to check the property seized by Yu Dayou's tribe.

After Li Rusong first came into contact with Yu Dayou's scouts, both sides came to similar conclusions and believed that they were all Ming troops.

Therefore, after Yu Dayou once again sent out scouts to contact Li Rusong's men, the two sides would soon get together.

With Yu Dayou's scouts leading the way, Li Rusong's troops moved south faster.

After all, they were not familiar with the geography along the way, so in order to avoid missing the best camping spot, they did not march very fast.

The simplest thing is that the army must be stationed close to a water source. If it leaves such an ideal camping spot and continues to march for several miles or more, and then cannot find a water source or the water source is not enough to supply the army, it will be a very troublesome matter.

With Yu Dayou's scouts leading the way and planning the location of the military camp for them when they arrive, it will naturally be much easier.

After that, Yu Dayou met Li Rusong in Dongyu City.

At this time, Li Rusong was not as arrogant as he was after the three major conquests in the middle period of Wanli. He claimed to be "the best general of the Ming Dynasty", so he behaved well when he saw Yu Dayou, who was more famous than his father.

It is worth mentioning that although Yu Dayou had a high status in the Ming Dynasty army, Li Chengliang's status was higher than Yu Dayou in the southwest army sequence issued by the Ministry of War.

In any case, Yu Dayou has now transferred from the Army Division to the Navy. The Ministry of War has given Li Chengliang the position of Governor of Southwest Military. Yu Dayou's Navy is not in this sequence, but according to the document, he has to listen to Li Chengliang's dispatch at this time.

After the reception banquet, Li Rusong's troops only rested in Taungoo City for two days before the 30,000-strong army continued southward and garrisoned in various towns in southern Myanmar.

After the city defense is handed over, naval officers and soldiers will also begin to gather in Bago and Dagon. These two places have been designated as military ports by the South China Sea Navy and are prepared for long-term garrisoning in the future.

But Yu Dayou didn't know that the navy he left behind would eventually break away from the Nanhai Navy and form a separate West Sea Navy.

Today, Yu Dayou only leads a small number of naval officers and soldiers to garrison Taungyu City. In fact, the city defense has been handed over, and the rest is captured in the Burmese palace.

The Burmese princes, ministers and clan members who were captured by the Ming army were directly ignored by Li Rusong.

At this moment, Yu Dayou and Li Rusong were counting the supplies.

"The lists of the sixteen boxes of various gems and utensils have been drawn up. After counting, the boxes can be sealed and stamped."

There are more than a dozen boxes placed in the room. Now the lids of the boxes have been opened, revealing a dazzling array of gems.

Li Ruzhen and Li Rubai looked at these gems in a daze, with greed in their eyes.

The eyes of the two fell into Yu Dayou's eyes, but he had no expression.

After the things were handed over, nothing happened to him.

As for Li Chengliang's son, if he has thoughts that he shouldn't have, it has nothing to do with him.

However, Li Rusong only looked at the list in his hand from beginning to end, and was not affected by the belongings in the box at all.

As the person destined to inherit the Li Chengliang family, Li Rusong naturally knew what he could do and what he couldn't do.

Just like this batch of things that already have a list, nothing can be missing.

Yu Dayou made it clear when handing over these things that they were all used by the Burmese king or in his private collection. Naturally, they had to be turned over to the inner court.

As for the other hundreds of thousands of taels of gold and silver, they had already been counted and packed into boxes by Yu Dayou's department. When they got it, they could only look at it and had no way of doing anything.

Fortunately, Li Rusong was very satisfied with the harvest in Ava City, so he would not covet these Burmese king's treasures at the expense of small things.

I think back then, Lan Yu, the famous general and hero of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, was executed. One of the crimes was for embezzling the property of Emperor Yuan.

Although Mang Yinglong was nominally the envoy of Xuan comfort, the Ming Dynasty actually regarded him as a local vassal king, so his belongings could only be held by clans above the vassal king of the Ming Dynasty.

If others get it, it is considered a transcendence.

This is also the reason why Yu Dayou tacitly allowed his subordinates to divide the stolen goods in the Burmese treasury, but he paid special attention to the contents in the royal palace and the private treasury of the King of Burma, and did not allow his subordinates to have dirty hands and feet.

A little carelessness here may lead to huge disasters.

The sixteen boxes of treasures in the house are only a small part of what needs to be handed over. In fact, there are many large items stored in the warehouse, and some of them will also be loaded onto trucks and transported to the capital.

As for the gold and silver handed over, Yu Dayou also sorted out more than 70,000 taels of gold and 410,000 taels of silver and handed them over.

And an unknown amount of property had been piled up in the naval warships on the Bago River outside the city. The entire Toungu City had been looted by them, leaving only an empty city for Li Rusong.

Of course, Li Rusong didn't value the money, but cared more about the food in the warehouse in Toungoo City.

"Rusong, the handover work of Taungyu City is almost completed now. The remaining inventory should be completed today and tomorrow. I plan to take people back to Bago the day after tomorrow."

Yu Dayou said to Li Rusong.

"Don't worry, Admiral. Now that my brother is stationed in southern Burma, everything will be safe."

Li Rusong cupped his fists and replied.

"When will you go north to transport these things to the capital?"

Yu Dayou asked.

"Admiral, it's good luck to load these boxes of gems and gold and silver, but it's too troublesome to transport the large artifacts we saw two days ago by land.

I wonder if they can be directly loaded on ships and transported to Tianjin by sea."

Li Rusong asked in a low voice.

"Yes."

After just a little thought, Yu Dayou nodded.

The value of those treasures is not really big, but because they were copied from the palace, they are more sensitive. They are either destroyed by order or transported to the capital for the court to deal with.

But if we really count the value, the batch of gems is more valuable.

After all, gems are a specialty of Myanmar. The Ming Dynasty does not produce much, and the quality is slightly worse, so the palace will send people here regularly to buy them.

Of the sixteen boxes of treasures, eight or nine boxes are filled with gems of various colors, enough for the palace to use for decades.

"The things should be sealed here temporarily, waiting for the imperial court's order.

I plan to let my brother lead 5,000 soldiers tomorrow to escort a batch of food and grass to the north in advance to alleviate the problem of food and grass shortage for the army.

At the same time, the list of property will be reported to the capital, waiting for the imperial court's order.

So please leave a few navy warships at the dock outside the city. If the court intends to go by sea, they can load them directly."

Li Rusong said.

They crossed mountains and ridges and fought all the way from Yunnan to here.

But until now, Li Rusong is still very curious about the navy of Jiangnan going to Myanmar by sea.

After all, it is very difficult for someone who only takes a ferry across the river to talk about the sea.

People nowadays don't have the same mind as people in later generations. They already have a model of the earth in their minds and know the concept of seven continents and four oceans.

With this concept, it is not surprising that the Ming army came across the sea from Jiangsu and Zhejiang.

Li Rusong didn't, he just thought that since it was so difficult to go on land, how could they come by sea.

Even though he had a welcoming banquet and talked with the navy officers afterwards, he still had no specific concept. He only knew that it would take several months to get here from the Ming Dynasty by boat.

They would also take several months by land, wouldn't they?

The ships docked outside the city of Toungoo were all small ships of the navy, but they were not small in Li Rusong's eyes.

Thinking of what Yu Dayou said before, his ship was more than ten times larger than those small boats outside the city, so he simply took this opportunity to ask: "Admiral, do you also need boatmen to pull the boats here like you do on the canal?"

"Haha, how could it be? If there is a difficult sea route, just take a detour.

The fleet has hundreds of ships of all sizes. If there is such a sea route, it's better not to take it."

Yu Dayou laughed.

However, he soon realized that many Ming generals did not understand geography at all, so he simply ordered people to take out the sea charts for Li Rusong to see.

In fact, there are sea charts in the folk, but they are very simple and even have large errors.

However, the sea chart in Yu Dayou's hand was much more accurate, and it was even compared with the maps drawn by the Portuguese and Spanish.

"This is Guangdong, Ming Dynasty, and then Fujian and Zhejiang."

Yu Dayou pointed at a corner of the map and began to explain to Li Rusong, "From Guangdong, go south to Luzon, go to Jiugang after replenishing supplies, and cross the Mancijia Strait to reach Pegu" (End of this chapter)