Seeing that Zhu Ainao did not speak for a while and was not famous for being independent, Ma Shiying and other cabinet ministers were a little uneasy.

Because when this matter is discussed seriously, they, the cabinet ministers, do have certain responsibilities.

Even if Zhu Yuyao doesn't punish anyone for this matter, even if he criticizes a word or two, it will not look good on their face.

The most important thing is that the position of this cabinet minister may also be unstable.

To the surprise of several cabinet ministers, Zhu Yuyao seemed to have calmed down his anger and said: "You are all veterans with rich political experience. Can you tell me how to stabilize the price of food?"

No one foolishly asks why food prices should be stabilized.

Not to mention that rising food prices will cut off the livelihood of poor people and force them to rebel.

Even the military rations needed by the imperial court still needed to be purchased.

The price of food has almost doubled again. Doesn’t it mean that the military resources required by the imperial court to purchase food will also double?

Several cabinet ministers looked at each other, but it was Zhang Youyu, the Minister of Revenue, who spoke first.

"Your Majesty, the only option is for the imperial court to transport grain from elsewhere to these four provinces for official sale."

Zhu Yucao said: "Where to adjust the grain? Is it in time? Is it enough? Has the great minister ever considered these issues?"

Zhang Youyu looked like he wanted to speak, but he didn't dare.

At this time, Huang Daozhou stood up, bowed his head, and said: "I heard that His Majesty came to Chengdu last year to take over the savings of more than ten generations of Shu kings. Among them, there are nearly five million stones of grain. Transporting it to the south of the Yangtze River will definitely stabilize the price of grain!"

Zhu Yuluo knew that these people were all counting on Sichuan's food.

Therefore, he did not get too angry and said: "Mr. Shi Zhai, has he considered the last two questions I asked Da Si Nong? In addition, does Mr. Shi Zhai think that the five million stone grains have not been used in the past year?"

"With so much food, it won't be used up in a year, right?" Huang Daozhou said, but his tone was not very sure.

After all, he was not good at practical matters and did not know how much five million stones of grain could be used in a year.

He subconsciously felt that five million stones of food would not be enough to consume in one year.

Zhu Yuyao was not prepared to explain it in person, but said: "It is reported that Liu Xiaolian, a member of the Munitions Department of the Military Academy, has come to Wuying Palace."

"yes."

Forsythia responded and went to the side to get a walkie-talkie to contact the Military Academy office in Wenhua Hall.

Liu Xiaolian went eastward with Zhu Yuluo at the beginning, and was responsible for handling logistics and military supplies.

Therefore, after Zhu Yuyao ascended the throne, the Military Affairs Office was upgraded to the Military Affairs Academy, and Liu Xiaolian was promoted again, from a sixth-rank chief to a fifth-rank Yuanwailang.

After a while, Liu Xiaolian came to Wuying Hall, bringing with him a stack of account books.

After he saluted, Zhu Aao said: "Tell the elders how much food our new army has received from the Prince of Shu's Mansion in the past year."

"yes."

Liu Xiaolian responded, glanced at Ma Shiying and other cabinet ministers, and then opened an account book and started talking.

"In the past year, almost all the military rations required by all Sichuan armies were supplied from the inventory of the Shu Palace.

Last year, Zhang Xianzhong attacked Chengdu with an army of 600,000 to 700,000, but was defeated by His Majesty. He surrendered more than 320,000 of his troops, and reorganized Chengdu's original 80,000 troops into 400,000 new Ming troops.

Among them, except for the nearly 100,000 Sichuan Gongtun military rations provided by the Sichuan local government, the remaining imperial guards, imperial guards, border guards, and garrison troops were about 300,000. The required military pay and rations were all drawn from the savings of the former Shu Prince's Palace.

Your Majesty treats the new army well. One soldier needs four kilograms of food per day. Ten thousand soldiers need six thousand three hundred and sixty kilograms of food per month.

Three hundred thousand soldiers need to consume 2,289,600 dan of military rations per year!

Gentlemen, please note that the rations consumed by the army and horses have not yet been calculated here.

It should be noted that a war horse consumes at least three times as much food as a soldier. Although the Ming Dynasty's new army has few cavalry, it still has 20,000 horsemen, and this requires more than 400,000 dan of food!"

Hearing this, except for Yuan Jixian, Ma Shiying, and Lu Zhenfei who had experience in supervising military affairs, the other cabinet ministers such as Huang Daozhou and He Yingrui all looked shocked.

In fact, even Yuan Jixian and the others were very surprised.

For one thing, they didn't expect that Zhu Yuluo had so many soldiers and horses when he was in Sichuan.

Secondly, I did not expect that the hundreds of thousands of troops would consume so much - in the past ten years, the Ming Dynasty had treated its soldiers so poorly that they had forgotten how much normal military supplies were.

After coming back to his senses, Huang Daozhou couldn't help but ask: "How many new troops have your Majesty organized now?"

Liu Xiaolian looked at Zhu Ya'ao, and seeing her nodding, he took out another booklet and read: "So far, our Ming Dynasty has five battalions of the Royal Guards, with a total of 26,050 people; and five towns of the Royal Guards, with a total of 60,000 people.

people.

There are 13 towns of border guards, with a total of 156,000 people; there are more than 42 towns of garrison, with about 510,000 people!

Therefore, there are currently about 750,000 new troops in total!"

hiss!

Hearing this, the seven cabinet ministers couldn't help but take a breath.

Because Zhu Yuluo came to South Zhili with less than 100,000 people before. After reorganizing Huang Degong and Huang Fei's troops, the new army under his command only reached more than 200,000.

And Zhu Yu'ao never let these cabinet ministers interfere in military affairs, so they really didn't know that Zhu Yu'ao actually controlled 750,000 new troops!

But when I think about it, I realize that this is a matter of course.

In the past, the Ming Dynasty established nine major border towns to defend against enemies in the north, and deployed millions of border troops to barely maintain peace within the Ming Dynasty.

A month ago, the Ming Dynasty faced the two powerful enemies of the Puppet Huns and the Puppet Qing Dynasty at the same time. The defense line stretched from Shaanxi and Gansu to the seaside of Huai'an Prefecture in southern Zhili. It was no shorter than the previous nine-border defense line, spanning five or six provinces, with seven

One hundred and fifty thousand new troops to maintain this line of defense is already considered a small number.

But, how much rations will these 750,000 new troops consume in a month?

Huang Daozhou is proficient in the study of Yi, so he is naturally good at arithmetic and can calculate it quickly.

If you include the consumption of horses, you will need about 500,000 dan of food per month!

In other words, the five million stones of grain that Zhu Yurao obtained from the Shu Palace was only enough to support the 750,000 new troops for ten months...

Although the specific accounts cannot be calculated like this - for example, the new army that Zhu Yulao actually raised for a year was only the 300,000 that was initially organized in Sichuan.

The soldiers and horses of the Seventeenth Town reorganized in Wuchang were only raised for three months, and their food and grass were mainly supplied by Huguang.

In addition, most of the food and grass consumed by Zhu Yuluo's army of more than 200,000 in southern Zhili in the previous month was raised by the Nanjing court.

However, Huang Daozhou and other cabinet ministers also knew that part of the five million grains and grass Zhu Aao obtained from the Shu Palace must have been used in other places.

For example, when the bandit rebellion in Sichuan was first suppressed, the refugees were settled, and support was provided to Chongqing, Guizhou, Shaanxi-Gansu, etc. that were later suppressed.

Therefore, there may not be much left in the batch of grain from Prince Shu's Mansion.

No, without waiting for any cabinet minister to ask, Liu Xiaolian said: "Today, the five million stones of food obtained by your majesty when he took over the Prince of Shu's Mansion has less than one million stones left. The accounts are all here. If any cabinet minister doesn't believe it,

Feel free to check it out.

In addition, I must remind you that these grains are reserve rations for the armies of the four provinces of Sichuan, Shaanxi-Gansu, Guizhou, and Chongqing, and must not be touched lightly."

The batch of grain in the Shu Palace was actually controlled remotely by Liu Xiaolian. Naturally, he did not want to be influenced by these cabinet ministers.

Cabinet ministers also know the importance of military rations.

Only when military rations are guaranteed can military morale be stable.

If there is a shortage of military rations, something big will happen.

Therefore, after listening to Liu Xiaolian's explanation of the new army's food consumption, both Ma Shiying, Zhang Youyu and other cabinet ministers who were good at practical matters, as well as cabinet ministers like Huang Daozhou who came from a clear family, all knew that they could not count on the food from the Prince of Shu's palace.

However, if Sichuan has no food to support, where else can they get food to stabilize food prices in South Zhili and other four provinces?
Chapter completed!