The room goes through the late Ming Dynasty, and the back door leads to North America at the beginni

After deciding to confer Zhu Cihong as the King of Song Dynasty, Li Zicheng felt quite happy, so he looked around the palace and asked, "Do any of the ministers have anything else to report?"

Gu Junen, who was the oldest among the advisers but now quite inconspicuous, hesitated for a moment, and still said with his hands raised: "Your Majesty, although our army captured the capital this time, we did not seize much food from the public treasuries of the previous Ming Dynasty.

But now we have millions of soldiers in Dashun who are in urgent need of payment, and according to the rules, after capturing the capital, we need to reward the meritorious soldiers.

In addition, there is a shortage of food in the capital, and at least hundreds of thousands of people are starving, crying out for food. In order to solve the above difficulties, our army must raise a large amount of money and food as soon as possible. "

Li Zicheng was slightly stunned after hearing this, then frowned and said, "Since we captured Luoyang, we have seized so much money and food, have they all been used up?"

Gu Junen was in charge of logistics. He did not dare to conceal such a major event, so he said: "The food and grass in the army can only last for more than half a month at most. As for gold and silver, it is no longer enough to pay military pay."

"How can gold and silver be used up so fast?" Li Zicheng asked puzzledly.

He knew that Gu Junen couldn't lie about this kind of thing.

Although Dashun was first established and had incomplete systems, he had established a relatively effective management system for the management of confiscated gold, silver, jewelry, and grain and grass as early as when he was the king of Chuang and was driven around by the Ming army. Supervision system.

Although Gu Junen was a consultant in charge of logistics, he couldn't cheat on this matter. Because the actual logistics manager is the current Empress Dashun, his wife, Gao Guiying.

If he wanted to know the actual amount of money and food, he only had to go back and ask Gao Guiying.

Gu Jun'en said: "Since His Majesty proclaimed himself emperor in Xi'an, there have been over a million soldiers officially enrolled in our Dashun army.

After our army invaded Shanxi and North Zhili, many Ming troops surrendered and were directly incorporated, which increased the number of our army by more than 200,000.

Monthly military pay and silver rewards are not the biggest consumption. The biggest consumption is actually the purchase of grain and grass. "

Li Zicheng knew about the purchase of grain and grass.

Although the Shun Army had a food raiding team when they were still in the Chuang Army, every time they conquered a place, as long as the local gentry and landlords resisted a little, or failed to surrender in time and with a clear attitude, or their reputation was too bad, they could not be compared with a certain Shun Army. If a general has a grudge, his family will be destroyed and his family will be robbed of money and food.

The Shun army did not hold public trials like the Ei army and only executed a few people who deserved to die. Instead, they really killed the whole family. There were many such things, and Li Zicheng may not be aware of them, and even if he knew, he would not be able to control them.

It stands to reason that with such a ferocious grain harvesting team, Shunjun should not be short of money and food.

The problem is that Henan, Shaanxi, Shaanxi, Beizhili and other places previously captured by the Shun Army are extremely short of money and food. Even if the grain team digs three feet of ground every time they break into a household, the food collected is not enough for the rapidly growing Shun Army. .

Therefore, Gu Junen, Gao Guiying and others who were in charge of logistics affairs bought grain from a few well-connected grain merchants.

As far as Li Zicheng knows, the grain merchants Shunjun has contact with now mainly come from two places, one is Sichuan and the other is maritime.

Sichuan was originally one of the granaries of the Ming Dynasty. Although Sun Chuanting stayed in Hanzhong and isolated the main transportation roads between Sichuan and Shaanxi, there were still other roads communicating with him.

The price of grain in the north was already very high, and Shunjun was a nouveau riche, so he was very generous when buying grain. A few Sichuan grain merchants tried their best to transport grain from central Sichuan to Shaanxi and Gansu for sale, making huge profits.

As for the grain merchants coming from the sea, the ingredients are very complicated.

Some came from Jiangnan, some came from Guangdong and Guangxi, and some came from Korea, Japan, and the Netherlands. The existence of maritime grain merchants was the main reason why the capital could persist for so long after the water transportation was cut off.

Under normal circumstances, shipping food by sea is not profitable.

But when the price of food in the north is more than ten times or dozens of times that in the south, it has become a very profitable business. And as long as you get ashore, you will be safe - in the north, no force is willing to offend foreign grain merchants.

In addition, other businesses are difficult to do in troubled times. Nowadays, most maritime merchants do some grain business and serve as grain merchants.

Knowing this, Li Zicheng thought for a moment and naturally understood why Dashun was as short of money as Ming Dynasty.

When he came back to his senses, he asked: "Do you have any solution to the problem of money and food?" Li Yan, Niu Jinxing, Wang Linchen and Lai Yi were all silent for a while.

Money and food is a problem that all dynasties have to face. If this problem could be solved easily, the Ming Dynasty would not be so poor.

Seeing that all the civil servants were silent for a while, Li Zicheng couldn't help but look disappointed, waved his hands and said: "Everyone, go down and think about it carefully - the lack of money and food is a big problem related to the safety of my Dashun. I hope you can come up with a solution as soon as possible." Law."

After Li Yan, Niu Jinxing and others exited Wuying Hall, Li Zicheng asked his maid to put on his armor, and then led more than a thousand guards to inspect the military camp.

Li Zicheng has come step by step to today, sitting on the throne of the former Ming Emperor. He naturally knows that the army is the foundation of power.

Therefore, although Li Zicheng was a little distracted after conquering the capital, he still attached great importance to the army and would visit each battalion every two days.

He first inspected other military camps, and finally came to the Chinese Army Camp. After Dashun was established, the main army was still divided according to front, rear, left, center, and now the Chinese Army Camp was managed by Ruhou and General Quan Liu Zongmin.

Although Li Zicheng has always been a little dissatisfied with Liu Zongmin for taking credit and not paying much attention to his superiors and subordinates, he still trusts Liu Zongmin on the whole.

Not to mention anything else, Liu Zongmin was really fierce when he fought - in order to break out of the encirclement, he could even kill his wife. Just ask if you are afraid.

After inspecting the Chinese army camp, Li Zicheng called Liu Zongmin and several other generals of the Chinese army to the big tent and asked them.

"Is there a lot of talk in the military about silver rewards lately?"

Liu Zongmin smiled and said: "That's not true. Before attacking the capital, His Majesty said that there will be rewards for attacking the capital.

And everyone knows that the richest place in the world is the capital, and there are countless gold, silver and jewelry in the Forbidden City.

Now that the capital has really been captured by us, everyone is naturally looking forward to your majesty's reward. "

Ren Jirong, former Guoyi General of the Chinese Army, also said: "There is indeed a lot of discussion about this matter in the army, and it has been going on for a few days, and a few soldiers have already complained secretly."

Zhang Nai Ze, who was transferred from the commander of the bodyguards to the general of the Chinese army, said: "According to the observation of the last general, most of the people who clamored for rewards as soon as possible were the soldiers who were demoted from the Ming Dynasty in the past. The old brothers can still keep their composure."

After hearing this, Li Zicheng frowned deeply and said: "Your lord, you were the first to invade the inner city, and you also entered the Forbidden City with me. You should know that the Ming Dynasty's treasury and internal funds only captured tens of thousands of taels of silver." .

As for other treasures, although there are some, they are not worth much. But now millions of soldiers are waiting for military pay, and hundreds of thousands of soldiers who attacked the capital are still being rewarded. Where can I get so much money on my forehead? "

Li Zicheng just subconsciously said this in front of Liu Zongmin and others, without even thinking that Liu Zongmin had any solution.

Unexpectedly, Liu Zongmin laughed loudly after hearing this and said: "Your Majesty, you are confused. Although not many gold and silver treasures were seized in the Forbidden City, there are a lot of gold and silver treasures in the capital.

Which of the Ming ministers who surrendered to us didn't live in a mansion and be served by a large group of servants? They all look white and tender. The family is definitely not short of money and food.

The Ming Dynasty's treasury has no money, how can they still be without money? Your Majesty has no money, why don't you ask them for it? "

Li Zicheng was moved after hearing this, but he deliberately asked: "Now that they have become Dashun ministers, how can they ask for it?"

"Da Shun ministers?" Liu Zongmin sneered, "They are nothing but Dashun ministers."

Although Liu Zongmin is now the Ruhou of Dashun and General Quan, because his time is too short, he has not yet adapted to his new status as a powerful person in Dashun. He still often remembers the painful experiences of the past, and takes on the role of the poor who were bullied by the gentlemen, and treats the officials The gentry and landlords hated it very much.

"These people, as ministers of the Ming Dynasty, surrendered to me, Dashun. They are disloyal people. In addition, as court ministers, they failed to help Chongzhen manage the country, which is a breach of duty.

Finally, few of these Ming officials were not greedy - if they were really not greedy, how could they afford to live in mansions, maintain servants and women with the meager salary given by the Ming court?

Judging from the situation, we have conquered the capital, and these dog officials can be safe and keep their wealth just by bowing before His Majesty. It is really an advantage for them.

Now that we are short of money and food, we might as well recover all the dirty money these corrupt officials have embezzled! "(End of chapter)