"Turn left~~~!"

The heavy snow stopped, and half a month passed slowly...

Half a month has passed since Zhu Youxiao handed over the inspection of troops and horses, and during this half month, Man Gui honestly trained the army according to Zhu Youjian's training methods.

In the booklet, Zhu Youjian had anticipated everything that could be expected.

Whether it was wearing ribbons on both sides, or leggings on the same hands and feet, etc., he thought of it all.

Therefore, Man Gui and Sun Yingyuan's military training went smoothly beyond expectations.

Perhaps because the existence of goose-stepping is too simple for soldiers who need to be proficient in battle formations, when half a month passed and Zhu Youjian came to inspect, the Seventh Guards and One Battalion almost looked brand new.

It's not that the soldiers have become much stronger, it's just that their spirit has changed a bit, they are a little more energetic and their concentration is very concentrated.

Although such changes are not very effective on the battlefield, they can alleviate the worries of the leader during daily discipline and on the march.

However, as he watched, Zhu Youjian noticed something was wrong, and asked Man Gui and Sun Yingyuan:

"How many soldiers and horses are there now?"

"Back to Your Highness, there are currently 67,432 people in Yanshan Camp. We have recruited 25,232 more people. Recruiting 167 more people will satisfy the number of people in the New Fourth Guards and First Battalion."

As soon as Man Gui opened his mouth, Zhu Youjian's heart sank.

Although he recruited more soldiers and horses according to the wishes of the good emperor brother, with so many soldiers and horses, the secret will definitely be exposed when the time comes, and the daily military camp expenses will also increase.

"Chengen, how much does the military camp cost now?" Zhu Youjian looked at Wang Chengen, and Wang Chengen replied with all the delicacies:

"The current monthly expenses for the military camp are around 48,000 taels. Previously, the Royal Horse Prison still had 754,200 taels of silver."

"In the entire month of the twelfth lunar month, it cost 364,350 taels to repair Qingling, 38,201 taels for the military camp, 15,452 taels for the Yanshan Institute, 13,000 taels for the honeycomb coal kiln, 2,000 taels for the Ordnance Institute, 800 taels for the Artillery Institute, and a balance of 320,397 taels."

"However, the south farm sold all the horses and sheep from the south transport, and the north transport cost 264,300 taels of silver. Currently, there are still 584,697 taels of silver in the Royal Horse Supervisory Bank's treasury."

Speaking of this, Wang Chengen explained again:

"Imperial stores have been opened in several places in the mutual market, specializing in selling briquettes to Beilu."

"In the past month, more than eight million catties were sold, and the livestock exchanged for them were 222 middle-class horses, 1,012 low-class horses, 915 cattle, and 16,500 sheep..."

"The slaves selected the low-grade horses that are qualified to become military horses, leaving 822 low-grade horses. As for the farm cattle, they are leased to tenants who open up wasteland according to His Highness' instructions."

"If these sheep and horses are shipped south, they can be sold for sixty or seventy thousand taels of silver."

Wang Chengen's words made Zhu Youjian nodded and said:

"It seems that the briquettes are saturated for the northern tribes of Karaqin and Tumut. It is estimated that before other tribes know about the briquettes, the monthly income will be around several million kilograms."

With a few million kilograms per month, you can exchange for cattle and horses worth more than ten times, and sell horses and sheep of 60,000 to 70,000 taels, which can be considered a lot of income.

Putting aside everything else, the briquette trade alone allowed Zhu Youjian to support more than half of the Royal Horse Supervisor's army.

As for the remaining half, we can only wait and see when there is progress on the south side.

"Is the field measurement in South Field not over yet?" Zhu Youjian asked.

"Not yet. It is said that the fields of the gentry, grain merchants, and corrupt officials have just been measured, and the fields of the military camps of the Four Guards and Three Posts have not yet been measured." Wang Chengen reported the good news:

"But the good news is that Lu Tongzhi and Admiral Cao have already earned 930,000 as tenants."

"Most of these people are living in seclusion, and they are all coming out now. Adding the people in Huai'an Prefecture and Xuzhou Yellow Register, Huai'an Prefecture currently has 500,880 households and a population of 2.5 million 4,040."

"This population is nearly twice the number listed in the Yellow Register, and nearly one-third of them are men."

They are all men...

Hearing this, Zhu Youjian's heart sank, because this meant that most of the people who starved to death were women and children, even the old and the weak.

Recalling the aftermath of the Huaibei Great Famine case, Zhu Youjian asked in a low voice:

"What's going on in Huaibei?"

Wang Chengen knew that what his Highness was talking about was the follow-up to the case, so he responded:

"In addition to the officials, gentry, and grain merchants in Huai'an Prefecture and Xuzhou who were beheaded or exiled, 62 officials, large and small, were also involved in Shandong and Huguang."

"South Zhili involves thirty-four people, and Zhejiang involves seventeen people, but none of them exceeds the fourth rank..."

It does not exceed the fourth rank, which means it stops above the magistrate.

Hearing this treatment, Zhu Youjian sneered lightly and was very disdainful.

Although he knew that he had benefited from the compromise of the Huaibei Great Famine, this did not make him less contemptuous of this group of corrupt officials.

When the students from the Yanshan Institute and the army of the camp are formed, he will one day kill all these corrupt officials.

"When will Yang Duzhong come?" Zhu Youjian asked softly. After all, although Dong Lin is in charge of the Beijing Police Department, Yang Lian may have had enough trouble in Shandong at the moment.

Corruption in Shandong is not serious, mainly involving military farming and Taipu Temple. In addition, the biggest problem is the land annexation issue between the vassal king and the Confucius family.

None of these problems can be solved by Yang Lian. All in all, it is estimated that Yang Lian will be back in just a few days.

"It is said that he returned on the eve of the Zhengdan Festival, that is, three days later, and then attended the imperial meeting."

"By the way..." At this point, Wang Chengen also said to Zhu Youjian:

"Your Highness, you also need to attend the great court meeting in three days' time..."

"Da Chao Hui..." Hearing these three words, Zhu Youjian had a headache.

There were two types of dynasties in ancient times, one was the Great Dynasty and the other was the Chang Dynasty.

The Chang Dynasty is when the emperor summons civil and military officials to handle government affairs, which is a day-to-day official affair.

However, generally speaking, there are only three court gatherings a year. Most of them are held on the first day of the year, the winter solstice, and the emperor's birthday. They are in the nature of ceremonial celebrations.

On the day of the court meeting, all officials were required to wear court uniforms. Zhu Youjian didn't like this aspect alone.

Court clothes are too restrictive, so Zhu Youjian still prefers to wear ordinary clothes.

Not only that, the etiquette of the Great Court is too complicated, a hundred times more complicated than that of the Chang Dynasty.

Zhu Youjian estimated that even if he returned to the capital, he would not attend the imperial meeting. He would rather sleep in his own Xuqin Palace than go.

"Let's talk about the affairs of the Grand Council for a while. We'll set off at 9 o'clock tomorrow. Right now we should pay more attention to the affairs of the South Field."

Zhu Youjian said, and then walked back and forth on the stage of the martial arts school, looking at the soldiers practicing under the stage.

I have to say that Zhu Youjian grew very quickly, perhaps because he got exercise and kept up with his nutrition.

He had just celebrated his eleventh birthday a few days ago and was already over 1.6 meters tall.

This height, apart from being a little short in the military, is not considered short in daily life.

Zhu Youjian estimated that when he reaches the age of sixteen or seventeen, he should be about 1.8 meters tall, which may be slightly taller than Chongzhen in history.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youjian continued to explain to Wang Chengen next to him:

"By the way, ask the Ordnance Factory to get a set of my armor. I'll probably use it in two months. There's no need to limit the weight."

"My slave takes orders..." Wang Chengen didn't think anything was wrong with Zhu Youjian's words.

Zhu Youjian's strength has increased rapidly. Two months ago, he could only lift a dozen kilograms of exercise stones, but now he can lift more than twenty kilograms.

The lifting here refers to lifting the exercise stone above the head for five seconds.

Not only that, in terms of simply holding a practice stone, Zhu Youjian can also hold a practice stone weighing more than 60 kilograms with his hands and the strength of his waist and abdomen.

This kind of power is already greater than that of some people who are fourteen or fifteen years old.

If this continues, although when he reaches the throne, he will not be as brave as Xiang Yu and Guan Yu in the history books, at least a few people will not be able to get close to him.

However, all this requires him to persist in exercising.

Right now, he practices horns, weapons and archery in the backyard every day.

As for the fire gun, he would not easily try it until Yanshan Camp's ordnance could build its own self-generated gun.

Thinking of this, Zhu Youjian asked Wang Chengen again: "By the way, hasn't the Ordnance Institute's self-generated fire gun been developed yet?"

"Going back to Your Highness, we have drilled three hundred rifled gun tubes according to Your Highness's words, but the flint firing gunpowder part has not been solved yet." Wang Chengen explained:

"The craftsmen at the ordnance depot have tried it, but the current firing rate is less than 30%, and some even need to be fired four or five times before they can successfully ignite."

"Therefore, the craftsmen are going to increase the firing level to 60%, and then come to His Highness to report the good news."

"As for the cannon, since the clay mold needs to be dried in the shade for a year before it can be used, we can't start casting the cannon until at least October of the next year."

"In the time when the cannon was not being cast, the craftsmen were wondering if they could move the fusible structure to the cannon."

"Can they still come up with something like this?" Zhu Youjian was a little surprised. He thought the craftsmen of the Ming Dynasty were very rigid.

But now it seems that what limits them is money, not ideas.

But it is a pity that Zhu Youjian didn't understand how the artillery fired. He didn't even know when the artillery appeared in history.

If craftsmen can really figure out the structure of the fusilier, then the current artillery speed of one shot every three minutes can be increased to one shot every two minutes.

This was a huge change for the war situation. Although it was not enough to dominate the world, it was enough to give the Ming army an advantage in defending the city.

It's just a pity that this road is destined to be difficult. It will probably be difficult to study it within a few years.

But it’s okay, before the Ming Dynasty’s national power could not be integrated, this thing was built to serve as a wedding dress for the Hou Jin Dynasty and the Europeans.

"How are the inspections by the Jinyi guards at the Shuntian and Yongping mansions?"

Zhu Youjian asked Wang Chengen, and Wang Chengen nodded and said:

"At present, except for the four battalions of soldiers in Ji Town, Shanhaiguan, Yongping, Shixiaying and other places, the guard posts in other places are basically empty, and they have all become tenants."

Four battalions, that is, 12,000 people.

There are only 12,000 people in the nearly 900-mile defense line. If Nei Khalkha is instigated by Nurhachi to launch a sneak attack on the Great Wall, it is estimated that the changes in Jisi will be carried out in advance.

However, this is not to say that Jizhen took too much free money, but that Jizhen supported Liaodong too much.

From the Battle of Sarhu to now, Liaodong has lost more than 30,000 people in Ji Town, which means that Ji Town originally had more than 40,000 soldiers.

From more than 40,000 to more than 10,000, such a change makes it easier for Zhu Youjian to do it.

He turned to look at Man Gui and asked:
To be continued...