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Chapter 917: The Cannon Fired and the Treasury Was Empty
"Did they say anything about the musket?"

Hong Tao knew why the Inner Mongolian coalition was so brave without reading the battle report or listening to Yuan Keli's introduction. They had more advanced weapons, but not muskets and artillery, but steel plate pulley crossbows.

Although this cold weapon, which was mass-produced by machinery factories and was only used for training new army reserves, was still more powerful than traditional bows and crossbows, and was easy to use and maintain.

After becoming proficient, one can easily string the arrow with one foot and one hand on horseback, and use featherless steel arrows to ignore any armor within fifty meters, which is very suitable for cavalry use.

After the Tumed, Kharchin and Khorchin tribes formally submitted to the Ming Dynasty and accepted the military command of the General Staff, with Hong Tao's consent, more than 10,000 steel plate pulley crossbows were handed over to the Inner Mongolian coalition forces for use.

Facts have proved that it does have a good effect. When the cavalry of both sides are chasing each other, they can fire a round of steel arrows without waiting until the distance is close. Whether shooting horses or people, they can make the opponent lose their combat effectiveness.

"Not yet... But according to the report from the Statistics Department, more and more children of the three tribes are entering Guihua City to study. Even the Oba of Korchin sent his two young sons here. In addition, Bai Hong also privately asked the defenders of Bagua City if they could recruit young and strong people from his tribe to join the army."

Yuan Keli's face was full of pride when he answered this question. Once upon a time, the Mongolian cavalry was synonymous with unruly and looked down on the Ming army. But now they are actively moving closer to the Ming army and fighting other Mongolian tribes for the Ming. The huge contrast is very telling.

"Is there any news about Elek of the Tushetu tribe?" Hong Tao did not find it strange about the ideological changes of the three tribes in Inner Mongolia, but was more concerned about the situation of the Outer Khalkha tribes that had not been affected yet.

As the saying goes, people go to high places and water flows to low places. When a group has a high level of technology, living standards, and civilization, it will naturally attract other groups around it. Waging war to conquer others is just artificially speeding up the natural process.

Although humans are high-level animals, their genes still retain the nature of all social animals, which is to admire the strong. Because following the strong will gain more resources, gain an advantage in the competition with the same kind, and it will be easier to spread the genes.

"This leader is quite interesting. He led his troops to penetrate the deepest, marching nearly a hundred miles south from between Bagua City and Kalaqin City, and approaching Dushikou with great momentum.

But he stopped halfway and stayed there for half a month. He also sent people to visit the market north of Dushikou and purchased a lot of inland goods. After the three tribes of Inner Mongolia defeated the Wala, he led his troops back along the original route.

The Zhili Regional Command and the Army General Staff planned several encirclement and annihilation plans in vain, but all ended up in vain. Ma Chengen was so angry that he thought it was the General Staff and the three Inner Mongolian tribes who were secretly behind the plot and had discussed it with Elke in advance without telling him.

In fact, what he said was not without reason. The army of Bagua City did not leave the city because they were unwilling to chase the enemy on a large scale, but the Mongolian cavalry in Kalaqin City did not come out either, which was a bit intriguing. "

Since it was all thunder and no rain, there was nothing noteworthy about Yuan Keli's contribution to this battle which had little practical significance. However, one of the strange phenomena happened to happen to Elek's Tushetu tribe.

"No need to think too much about it. Elek must have a private agreement with the three tribes in Inner Mongolia that the two sides would not attack each other. He did not agree to join the Wala tribes in attacking the Ming Dynasty, but he was powerless, so he just did the work without putting in the effort. It was quite normal and smart.

Ombu did mention to me that his father, Bushitu, wanted to do some small business with the Tushetu tribe and resell some of the goods purchased from the mainland to Elek, but he was afraid that the court would not allow it. You should talk to Bushitu and Bai Hong in private in the name of the General Staff and determine the sales quantity. I will find a few people from the Statistics Department to sneak into the Inner Mongolian caravan and go to the Tushetu tribe together as a communication channel for both sides. "

Hong Tao did not think that Erleke's abnormal behavior was unexpected. He had talked to himself face to face and agreed with the choice of the three tribes in Inner Mongolia. He was unwilling to continue fighting for pastures and livelihoods.

However, he was caught between the Zasaktu Khanate and the various tribes of the Oirat, who were hostile to the Ming Dynasty, and dared not openly express his stance. If the Ming Dynasty could give him enough goodwill and support at this time, it would have the effect of providing timely assistance.

However, the Mongolian branch of the Statistics Department was established relatively recently and could not walk freely on the grassland, let alone travel to Outer Khalkha, so how to contact Elek became a problem. Since Bushitu had a solution, it was just right to go with the flow and establish reliable contact first, so that everything could be discussed.

"Your Majesty, aren't the troops left in the Western Regions a little too few? Now that we have the three tribes of Inner Mongolia as a barrier in the north, and Korea is obedient, the Northeast Military Commission can spare another guard force."

After hearing that the emperor had brought up the Statistics Department, Yuan Keli no longer cared about the trade between Inner Mongolia and the Khalkha Mongolian tribes, and instead became concerned about the control of the Western Regions.

Although they annihilated Latif Khan's main force and captured most of the Khan's clan and the leaders of the Black Mountain faction, they only had four guards deployed in such a vast land, guarding three transportation hub cities, which was too weak no matter how you looked at it.

"Li Qing, you are my chief steward, you must know how much money and food this war has cost. I am not short of soldiers, but money! Our family assets are still too thin, let's save for a few more years. We can't let the war affect domestic affairs, that would be putting the cart before the horse."

Hong Tao knew very well that the troops left in the Western Regions were too few, but the strength of four guards was already the limit of the court. If there were more, not only would the logistical supply capacity be insufficient, but the treasury and the national budget would also not be able to cope with it.

After careful calculation, in the 20 years since he ascended the throne, he only invested in the first ten years without any output, and lost money. In the last ten years, he at least saw some returns, but wars followed one after another, and he was basically busy all the time.

What was the war about? In one word, money! If we hadn't driven out the Spaniards, opened up Porto Enjo, cooperated with the Dutch to occupy most of the spices, raw silk, sugar and cotton cloth, and sent weapons to Russia, we wouldn't even be able to support the four guards.

That's a long-distance transportation of thousands of miles, at least half of which is without roads, and armed escorts are required. The cost is extremely high, it's simply burning money.

"…I was a little reckless."

Most people will become inflated when everything goes well, and then ignore some potential risks. Yuan Keli is obviously no exception, but fortunately he has an emperor who looks like a human being and can restrain most of his nature to help him check, otherwise he would have made the mistake of being too aggressive.

(End of this chapter)