Most importantly, he was responsible for providing them with money and supplies.
He allocated large sums of money to these soldiers every year to maintain their loyalty to him.
The local militia received twelve taels of silver per year, soldiers received twenty taels per year, and cavalry received twenty-four taels per year.
This only includes the soldiers' pay, not the salaries of court officials and local officials in parts of Hebei, Shandong, and Henan, nor the operating expenses of the court.
The military pay of officers at all levels, and the money they spent to win people's hearts.
Moreover, what I just mentioned was only military pay. Wouldn't it cost money to have artisans make cannons and muskets?
Should we spend money to support those craftsmen ourselves?
Furthermore, if the army were to mobilize, would the cost of military tents and other necessities be necessary?
Once this money is spent, the tax revenue provided by these two prefectures and three counties will not be enough.
This doesn't even include the food needed to supply the hundreds of thousands of soldiers who have taken off their jobs.
We are currently facing a huge fiscal deficit.
The most crucial point is that given this situation, the only option is to continuously expand the military; it is absolutely impossible to reduce the military and weaken one's power.
One of the most important reasons he decided to march south, conquer the prosperous Jiangnan region, and alleviate the impending financial collapse in order to support his army was...
Now that the south is no longer a battleground, Henan is engulfed in flames of war and has become a financial burden.
They could only move westward, conquer Shanxi, and expand their tax base.
As long as one's finances remain in deficit, one must expand, increasing territory and tax base.
Otherwise, if the finances collapse and there's no money to support the army, his current hundreds of thousands of troops will immediately dare to take up arms and march on the capital to explain the dire situation to him.
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