Chapter 370 The C-book is difficult!

  Chai Ke is indeed very embarrassed now.

Both Gaotai and Suzhou were occupied by the rebels, but the early rebels obviously gave up the guards in eastern Gansu directly. Places like Liangzhou Wei and Yongchang Wei all retreated without hesitation. It can be said that Liu Dongyang, Tu Wenxiu, and Xu Chaobu None of the elites suffered any major losses.

  At present, there are nearly 20,000 rebels stationed in Gaotai and Suzhou, 5,000 in Gaotai, 13,000 in Suzhou, and 1,000 in Jiayuguan. If you want to regain these three places, you can imagine that you will have to pay a big price.

  The northernmost Zhenyisuo, that is, Hexi Fort and Yanchi Fort, as well as the golden pagoda outside the side wall, were handed over by Liu Dongyang to the Cheng'en Department who had escaped from the side wall.

   Fortunately, Ganzhou has been recovered intact, which allows Chai Ke to breathe a sigh of relief.

Originally, it was expected that the war would last until the end of the year, and I might even have to face a battered town of Ningxia and Gansu. The emperor and the cabinet were also most worried about this. If so, the court might even have to face it or give up. Two towns, or pay a huge price to rebuild the difficult choice of two towns.

It is impossible to give up. Whoever dares to give up is afraid that he will be directly impeached by the censors. But in that case, rebuilding is probably not a matter of two or three million silver, and it may exceed five million The cost of two is also a normal thing.

   This is not counting that this trip to suppress the rebellion has already spent more than one million taels of silver, and the court is really overwhelmed.

But now it seems that the situation is not that bad. Ningxia is a little worse, but it can still be tolerated. Gansu Town is a surprise. It was originally worried that it would be worse than Ningxia, but now it seems that except in Yongchangwei In addition to the larger losses, only Suzhou, Gaotai and the Zhenyi Institute in the northernmost corner are still in the hands of the rebels. In a sense, I have completed my task.

  When Ye Xianggao and Zhang Jingqiu confessed themselves, although they didn’t say it clearly, Chai Ke could feel that if it was a last resort, as long as they could keep the two guards of Yongchang and Xining, and keep the Tatars and Fanren to the west of Yanzhi Mountain, it would be fine.

  This is the final bottom line, but Chai Ke knows that the consequences of this bottom line are quite serious, and it is impossible to accept it.

  Chai Ke did not believe that Ye Xianggao and Zhang Jingqiu dared to make such a statement without the emperor's acquiescence. No matter how difficult the court's financial resources were, it was impossible to make such a concession that lost the city and land.

Once the Tatars and Fans in the West Sea join the Tatars in the north, the strategic situation in the northwest of the Great Zhou Dynasty will be reversed. When Suzhou and Ganzhou may even become hunting grounds for the Mughals, Xining, Yongchang, and even Liangzhou Zhou and Zhuanglang will be difficult to defend, and Da Zhou may really become the second Southern Song Dynasty.

   "Xiu Ling, how are you resting?" Hearing the sound of footsteps, Chai Ke raised his head and put down his pen.

"It's okay. I went out and looked around. The situation in Ganzhou is still relatively stable. I have asked Zitang to arrange for people to clean up military discipline to avoid disturbing the people." Didn't sleep?"

"I slept for a while, I couldn't fall asleep, so I got up early." Chai Ke shook his head, stood up with his clothes on, stretched his waist, and moved his body, "I have written a memorial to the emperor and the cabinet. Ling, you can also take a look at it, if there is nothing, it will be printed and sent out, it is estimated that the imperial court is also looking forward to our memorial very anxiously."

"No, didn't you send back some good news in the early stage? As long as you calm down, brother Zishu, it's not that I'm mean. I'm afraid that many people in the DPRK think about the difference between Ningxia and Gansu, and the distance between the two towns. It is not necessarily clear where it is, just read a few stories at random, how many enemies have been killed, and what places have been recovered, and they will dance with joy, and the result?..."

  Yang He's tone is very dull, even understatement, but every word is penetrating.

"..., it's no wonder that these generals below are able to fool the court at will. If it weren't for you and me to come and go this way in person, I'm afraid the two of us may not be aware of the importance of Shandanwei, and we don't know that the big and small Songshan Mountains actually belong to Ningxia Town They are in charge of each other in Guyuan Town, and they may not even be able to figure out the real relationship between the Achi rabbit, Zhuli rabbit and Bushi rabbit on the grassland,..."

  With this experience of working together in a crisis, the relationship between the two has also rapidly grown closer in the past few months.

  Yang He feels that Chai Ke is also a person who can do things and can especially consider the difficulties of the court. Unlike some officials, they only think about doing things and making meritorious deeds, but they don't care whether they can hold on behind or not, and how many messes and holes they will create.

  Chai Ke is much more careful in this respect.

In Ningxia Town and Yongchangwei, Chai Ke did not first look at how many enemies were killed, but at the local situation, whether the people suffered too much damage, and whether there were too many refugees. From this point of view alone, Chai Ke Much stronger than many people.

  Do not seek great achievements, but seek to avoid future troubles, this is the real person who does things.

  The current Dazhou cannot stand the toss.

  The 800,000 taels of silver he brought when he left Beijing, and later the internal treasury collected another 300,000 taels of silver, which was already the limit of the court.

It is said that the emperor has taken out all the silver that can be collected, and even plans to sell several Huangzhuang. For this reason, the palace expenses have been reduced. Of course, the expenses of the Supreme Emperor and the Empress Dowager are definitely indispensable. .

However, it cost 600,000 yuan just to make up for the arrears of the soldiers of Yulin Town and Datong Town, and this is the most basic condition for the soldiers of Yulin Town to work hard, and another 300,000 taels of food and supplies were spent , this calculation leaves only one hundred thousand taels.

But apart from Ningxia’s relief and appeasement area, it is estimated that it will cost more than 500,000 taels, which is still the lowest amount, and Gansu Town’s estimate will not be lower than this amount. Soldiers.

  Chai Ke and Yang He made a rough estimate. Even if the war to regain Suzhou and Gaotai is not mentioned, at least two million taels of silver will be needed to end the war.

  This battle really can’t be fought. Once a war is fought, all you can see is the silver rushing out like water, without stopping. Chai Ke and Yang He are both shocked by seeing these expenses.

   On this point, even generals like Feng Tang warned Chai and Yang without hesitation. If the fight continues like this, the court may have to raise taxes again.

"Xiu Ling, Shen Yan, since Tang heard it, I'm afraid I'm going to look bad again, um, if you spread these words back to the court, I'm afraid you will all be accused by the procuratorate." Chai Ke smiled and shook his head. .

"I dare to say that in front of Zitang, I'm not afraid, this guy has already quarreled with me once." Yang He snorted coldly, "He tried to fool me all day long, and died more than 6,500 times in battle. People, more than a hundred of them died of illness, how can all be counted as death in battle? He also asked for compensation according to the price of rice and grain in the place where he died in battle, how is this possible?"

  Chai Ke shook his head and smiled wryly.

  He can also understand that the Yulin Town Army has killed so many people in total. If Feng Tang wants to control the group of arrogant soldiers below in the future, he must strive for the greatest benefits for these soldiers.

   Finally managed to catch up with this battle and made great contributions, but he couldn't get the most satisfactory result for the soldiers. He couldn't sit still as the commander-in-chief, and maybe he would be the next Shi Guangjue.

  Da Zhou’s compensation for soldiers also followed the previous Ming Dynasty, but slightly improved.

  Like a soldier who died in battle, except that his family had no sons, he could return to a civilian household, and if he had brothers, he could make up for it. Parents, wives and children of the dead in battle can receive fifty shi of rice and grain as compensation.

But rice grains in Jiangnan are only 600 to 1,000 renminbi per shi, which is less than one tael in silver. In the north, it can be as high as 800 to 1,200 renminbi, or even 1,400 renminbi. In Shaanxi, it can be as high as Fourteen hundred yuan, in the two towns of Ningxia and Gansu, it will reach 1,600 yuan, and in Ganzhou, it has even reached 1,800 yuan.

  The amount of rice and grain for this compensation has been determined, but there is no detailed regulation on where the compensation will be paid.

The general battle damage in the Nine Borders is local, of course, needless to say, but Yulin soldiers died in battle inside and outside the local border wall, so the compensation will be based on the grain price of 1,400 yuan per stone, while in Ningxia and Gansu, it will cost two more. A hundred qian, and fifty shi of grain is 10,000 qian, that is, more than eight taels of silver, and more than 6,000 people are calculated to be 50,000 taels of silver, which is not a small amount.

  Soldiers who died of the same disease were as different as those who died in battle. A soldier who died of a disease could only receive 30 shi of grain as a pension, which was 20 shi less than that of a war dead. This is also quite impressive for a family.

  Under such circumstances, it is of course impossible for Feng Tang to give in.

Seeing that Chai Ke remained silent, Yang He knew that the Governor-General was afraid that he wanted to make peace again, so he stared at him: "Brother Zishu, you are not only the Governor-General of the three sides, you are also the right servant of the Ministry of War! You are clear about the situation, but there are still big troubles for you and me in the follow-up, this little money is not enough at all, if you don’t save yourself, how will you deal with it?”

"Xiu Ling, since Tang and you are only fighting for tens of thousands of taels of silver, but how far are we?" The smile on Chai Ke's face is no longer a wry smile, but an extremely ugly smile, "Two million taels! How big is the difference between tens of thousands of taels of silver and two million taels of silver, do you think it is necessary for us to argue with Zi Tang for these tens of thousands of taels?"

  Yang He was also depressed after being startled.

  Yeah, what’s the point of tens of thousands more? Agreeing to give an extra tens of thousands of taels can also make Feng Tang remember his feelings. Now the imperial court can't make up these two million taels at all.

But without the two million taels, Yulin Town will become the second Ningxia Town if there is no mutiny, there will be civil uprisings, and countless bandits will swarm up. The root of thieves and bandits, if you can't eat enough, what can you do if you don't become a bandit?

  Thinking of this, both Chai Ke and Yang He felt depressed again, and the good mood that the counter-insurgency war was coming to an end was gone.

  (end of this chapter)