"Your Highness, I don't think the troops are a problem!" Liu Kongzhao replied, "The Nanjing camp has 30,000 elite soldiers, the Caojiang navy has 20,000, and the grain transport has 10,000 troops, so the total force is as high as 60,000!"
Zhu Cilang rubbed his chin, a little worried: "Sixty thousand soldiers may seem like a lot, but in fact, they are not many!"
Ren Jun, the left assistant minister of the Nanjing Ministry of War, knew the deployment of the imperial court's troops very well. He worriedly said, "Sixty thousand troops are indeed not many! You should know that the imperial court has a hundred thousand troops in Liaodong alone! Jizhou and Miyun have 20,000 to 30,000 elite troops, Xuanfu and Datong have 15,000 troops, and the three borders of Shaanxi have about 20,000 elite troops."
"The total number of these troops is as high as 160,000! You have to know that these 160,000 troops are all frontier troops who fought on the battlefield. Not to mention that we only have 60,000 people, even if we have 200,000 people, we may not be their opponent."
After listening to Ren Jun's analysis, many people present began to regret.
They knew that rebellion was difficult, but they didn't expect it to be so difficult.
Sixty thousand versus one hundred and sixty thousand...
Not to mention 160,000 elite border troops, even if they were asked to capture 160,000 pigs, it would take some time.
Seeing that everyone's morale was waning before they could even accomplish anything, Ni Yuanlu said, "Don't be discouraged, it won't be a big problem."
"Oh?" Zhu Cilang asked, "What good ideas do you have, sir?"
Ni Yuanlu scanned everyone's faces one by one, and said in the expectation of everyone: "Don't forget that we are the army serving the king, and we are just in law. The cabinet and the Imperial Household Department of the capital can indeed mobilize the border troops, but it is still unclear whose orders the border troops will obey."
"They may march south to attack us, or they may join us in the capital to defend the king! In addition... since we are defending the king, we must call on all the troops in the world to rush to the capital."
"Especially Zheng Zhilong in Fujian, who is deeply involved in smuggling and colluding with the enemy. If he is summoned to Beijing to defend the emperor under the pretext of being exempted from punishment, he will certainly send troops to help at the first opportunity."
"From what I know, he has tens of thousands of elite soldiers. With his joining, our disadvantage in military strength will be quickly made up."
Everyone looked at each other and confident smiles reappeared on their faces.
"I'm afraid it won't work!" Ren Jun, the left assistant minister of the Nanjing Ministry of War, poured cold water on him again: "Zheng Zhilong has only 50,000 soldiers and horses, and most of them are naval forces. Even if he joins the army to support the king, I'm afraid he won't be able to compete with the border troops."
Ni Yuanlu was a little anxious.
The Donglin Party had little confidence in the rebellion.
After hearing what Ren Jun said, many people began to back off.
If he continues talking, will he create another rebellion?
He acted confident and said to the people present: "Everyone, don't make things too complicated. Xie Sanbin and the Imperial Household Department can indeed mobilize the Nine Frontiers Army, but... the troops that can be mobilized are very few."
Ren Jun narrowed his eyes and asked, "What does Lord Ni mean...?"
Ni Yuanlu smiled and replied, "First, the Ping Liao army. Although the Jiannu were driven out of Liaodong and fled to Korea, Korea and Liaodong are only separated by a river, and they could come back at any time. In addition, there are the Mongols in Liaodong and the Russians who have violated the border several times. Before dealing with them, Xie Sanbin would never dare to take the risk of mobilizing the Ping Liao army on a large scale."
"According to the ratio of 30 to 10, we can only mobilize 30,000 troops."
"The second is the troops from Jizhou and Miyun. Their primary mission is to protect the capital, not to go south to fight. Even if they are transferred, they can only mobilize a few thousand at most."
"Then there is Xuanfu Datong. The situation there is similar to that of Jizhou Miyun. At most, we can mobilize a few thousand troops."
"Finally, there are three borders in Shaanxi. As we all know, the power within the Western Tumed Tribe of Mongolia is changing. In order to prevent them from causing trouble, the troops there will not be mobilized. Besides, Lu Daqi is a cautious person and will not easily trust Xie Sanbin."
"Taking various factors into consideration, the maximum number of troops that Xie Sanbin can mobilize is only 50,000 to 60,000!"
"His Royal Highness the Crown Prince can mobilize as many as 100,000 troops. Is this a complicated matter?"
......
"Sir, your analysis is great, it's brilliant!" Zhu Cilang immediately praised him, "Since the situation is not complicated, let's start the war on a certain day."
"Ahem," Ni Yuanlu coughed lightly, "Your Highness, don't worry. As the saying goes, food and fodder must be prepared before troops move. The most urgent task is to prepare money and food."
"Oh, yes!" Zhu Cilang slapped his forehead and looked at the Minister of Revenue Gao Hongtu.
Wars are fought for money and food.
Having money and food does not necessarily mean you can win a battle, but under the policy of conscription, you will definitely not be able to win a battle without money and food.
Gao Hongtu, the Minister of Finance of Nanjing, originally did not want to participate in the campaign to support the king.
But based on the information we have learned so far, something may have gone wrong in the imperial court in the capital.
In order to end the chaotic situation as soon as possible, Gao Hongtu decided to get involved.
But now he feels a little regretful.
The court composed of this group of people in Nanjing gave him the feeling of a makeshift team.
So unprofessional.
Especially the prince himself, giving people a very anxious feeling.
He knew that the prince was anxious, but the more this kind of thing happened, the more he couldn't be anxious.
Otherwise you will only lose your composure.
Seeing Gao Hongtu not speaking, Funing Marquis Zhu Guobi could not help but ask, "Master Gao, how much silver is there in the Nanjing treasury?"
Gao Hongtu replied slowly, "About 500,000 taels of silver."
"Five hundred thousand? That's too little!" Zhu Guobi immediately complained: "Just for the military pay, an army of one hundred thousand would cost two hundred thousand taels of silver a month."
"This is just the salary! A hundred thousand soldiers need three catties of food per person per day. Based on the price of six coins per stone of food, they will need nearly 1,200 taels of silver per day, which means 36,000 taels per month."
"In addition to people, there are also war horses, gunpowder, cannonballs, arrows, etc..."
Every time Zhu Guobi spoke, everyone's faces became uglier.
They were both saddened by the huge expenditure of silver and afraid of being targeted by the prince.
Before Zhu Guobi finished calculating the numbers, Zhu Cilang lost his patience.
He asked the people present: "How much silver do you think is needed for this visit?"
Zhu Guobi discussed with others and replied: "On the premise that everything goes smoothly, we need to prepare at least one million taels of silver."
"One million taels of silver..." Zhu Cilang found this number difficult to accept: "This is too much."
Ni Yuanlu immediately said, "It's indeed a lot, but I already have the money."
"Got it? Where?" Zhu Cilang asked.
"The Nanjing branch of the Daming Money House. It is said that there is a lot of silver there. Your Highness can requisition some of it."
After hearing what Ni Yuanlu said, Zhu Cilang was stunned again.
He vaguely remembered that Ni Yuanlu once asked him how much silver the Nanjing branch of Daming Money House had.
At that time he replied that he had six million taels of silver.
Now it seems...
Ni Yuanlu had already calculated this step.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
