In response to the Qing army's entry into the customs, the basic military arrangement was to let Chen Xinjia lead the outside and Zhu Chunchen lead the inside. Zhu Youjian knew very well the abilities of these two people and they were very unreliable. But other than these two people, it was really hard to find anyone.
No more suitable candidate can be found.
However, the situation is not as bad as it was in history. Originally, the city was abandoned because of Chen Xinjia, and the last person sent out to governor Qin Wang’s army was Zhou Yanru. No matter how incompetent Chen Xinjia is, he is better than Zhou Yanru who doesn’t know anything about the army. He is
Xuanda had supervised the army and had been involved in the Ministry of War for a long time. After all, he knew some military common sense.
The most worrying thing is Zhu Chunchen, who controls the defense of the entire capital. Not to mention the fact that this guy finally surrendered to Li Zicheng in history, but just his military ability, it is difficult for the newly born Zhu Youjian to trust him. He was born in a noble family and has no
Anyone with experience in commanding large armies in combat, unless he is a once-in-a-millennium top genius, is definitely a fool.
What's embarrassing is that even though he knew he was a fool, he still had to use him. The capital camp in the capital has always been controlled by nobles. Except for nobles, no one else could get involved. The general commander of the capital camp, ordinary nobles, didn't.
Qualified to intervene, candidates can only be selected from the three heads of the British family, Dingguo Gong, and Cheng Guogong. The current Yingguo Gong Zhang is extremely old, and Dingguo Gong Xu Yunzhen is too young, so Zhu Chunchen can only be used.
It's just a straw bag! Whoever allowed himself to time-travel too late is not qualified to touch the clay Bodhisattva in Jingying now.
After discussing the basic strategy in the main hall, he sent the anxious ministers back. As the saying goes, everything depends on human effort, but in the face of such a major event as the Manchu invasion, Zhu Youjian was really powerless. He had only traveled a few months, and the only thing he could do was
The most important event was the formation and training of a new army of more than 3,000 people.
These more than 3,000 new troops have no combat experience, no advanced weapons, and the number is too small. Facing the Qing army, which claims to have 150,000 troops, it is estimated that it is not enough to squeeze through the teeth.
Three days after the news of the Qing troops entering the pass came, bad news came from the front line again. Bai Guangen, the commander-in-chief of Jizhou, was defeated in battle with the Qing troops and fled. Jizhou fell and the Qing troops were directed towards Tongzhou, which was just a stone's throw away from Beijing.
, the Manchu and Qing armies may arrive under the Ming capital at any time.
At this time, the big guys in the capital could not sit still. Chen Xinjia, Minister of War, left the city overnight to rush to the front line in Tongzhou to supervise the formation. Tongzhou must be defended. It is not only the gateway to the southeast of Beijing, but also the main base for the supply of rice and grain in the capital. If Tongzhou
If it falls, the capital will be difficult to defend.
I don't know whether it was because Chen Xingjia's supervision of the formation had an effect, or there was a change in the strategic direction of the Qing army. After Chen Xingjia arrived in Tongzhou, the battle situation was finally stabilized.
The Tang News reported that the Ming army fought several times with the Qing army in Tongzhou, thwarting the Qing army's rapid advance and winning several great victories. At this moment, King Qin's army near Zhili arrived near the capital one after another.
It won't be so bad if you go up there.
"Your Majesty, after the calculations over the past few days, the Ministry of Revenue estimates that the rice grain in the capital should be able to last until around the Chinese New Year." Seeing that the war situation had stabilized, Zhou Yanru hurried over to report the difficulties.
"Stay until around the Chinese New Year? I'm afraid this won't be enough! We still have to find a way to raise more food. At present, the connection between the capital and the outside world is relatively smooth, and there should be ways to bring in food. King Qin's soldiers have also been sent to the surrounding areas of the capital one after another.
We have to prepare enough food and grass for them, otherwise there will be trouble."
"But the grain supplies are currently blocked in the canal line and cannot enter Beijing."
"If the grain cannot come from the land, can we buy grain by land and bring it to Beijing?"
"Buy grain? I guess I can buy some of it, but several treasuries don't have the money."
"No money? The only solution for now is to borrow. The wealthy households in the capital should still have some money on hand. Let the Ministry of Accounts follow the precedent of borrowing money before and borrow more money. No matter what, you have to take care of the current situation.
.”
"Do you still want to borrow money?"
"If you don't borrow it, why don't you rob it? The Grand Master should know the situation in the inner treasury this year, and there is no money coming in. Now we are facing a national crisis, what should we do if we don't borrow the debt? Grand Master, how much money do you think the court can borrow, so that the court can handle this situation?
Get through it?"
"It's probably at least a million, right?"
"In this way, directly borrow two million taels, of which one million will be allocated to Jian Heng on the front line, so that he can use the money to support the military supplies and rewards of King Qin's army. The other one million will be left at the Ministry of Household Affairs and 500,000 to supply the capital.
Officials’ salaries. The remaining five hundred thousand were used to buy grain.”
The emperor once again wanted to borrow money for emergencies! After Zhou Yanru told the cabinet and the Ministry of Household Affairs about the news, the officials' reactions were very complicated. In their view, borrowing money for emergencies was definitely not the right way. It was drinking poison to quench thirst. But from a selfish point of view, they
I also hope that the debt loan can be implemented.
The only people in the capital who can borrow money are the aristocrats, high-ranking officials and wealthy businessmen. To put it bluntly, they are still the creditors of the debts borrowed by the court. If you borrow money from the court, it will be returned to them through salary, one by one.
Not only can you earn some interest, but you can also get greater additional benefits through the convenience of debt collection. This transaction is a good deal. The money borrowed in August this year has been paid back for more than 30 years during the recent tax collection.
Wan, now that everyone has seen the money back, the possibility of defaulting on the debt to the court is much smaller.
The best thing is that this kind of debt relationship does not arise directly, and there is a layer of cover from the bank in the middle. In other words, this kind of debt relationship is quite safe, and no one will directly attack them for enriching their own pockets and taking advantage of the court.
Two million silver is not a big sum for the capital's bureaucratic capital. With the wealth they hold, even if the court wants to borrow ten or twenty million, it can be borrowed. For these worms in the capital,
Zhu Youjian may know better than they themselves how much money they have.
If this group of people could be more generous and borrow 20 to 30 million yuan at once, they would be able to solve the fundamental problem and no longer have to take such strenuous small steps. Unfortunately, it is unlikely at present. With the current assets and debts of the Ming Dynasty,
In terms of credit standing, you can only lend a few million dollars.
In the end, the important ministers in the court decided to borrow this debt. As long as the borrowing of money is started for the first time, the psychological burden and defense line will be much lighter. This time, the Minsheng Bank opened by Wang Chengen and other eunuchs, from the share of two million
Only a quota of 400,000 taels was allocated. This was the share that Wang Dehua squeezed out by forcing the civil servants to make concessions with the big seal in his hand. According to the original thinking of the civil servants, they would not let them die even if they were cheap.
The eunuchs went to get some.
Including the debts borrowed before, there are still more than 1.2 million taels that have not been paid off. The current total debt of the Ming Dynasty is 3.2 million taels. This amount is basically not far from the current regular taxes that can be collected.
For such a big country, the annual official tax is only about four million taels, which is really hard to explain. With the current financial situation of the Ming Dynasty, it is unreasonable not to subjugate the country. Until now, Zhu Youjian has not thought about the cabinet.
What do the people in the Ministry of War rely on to maintain the normal operation of most of the army? Except for Guan Ning's army, the other soldiers and horses cannot even get basic food and wages, so they still rush to King Qin, which is not enough.